Barriers
by silvaaeterna
Summary: -DISCONTINUED- In their pursuit of Naraku, the Inu gang meets a goddess who has immense power over spiritual barriers. Her abilities could be a great help to them, but there’s just one problem: she happens to be Sesshoumaru’s lover.
1. Reunion

Preliminary author's note: This is my first fanfic, and I've really been driving myself crazy trying to fit my plotline around all the little technicalities of the series. Just lemme know if anything is really confusing or completely wrong in it, other than what's meant to be confusing and wrong. Enjoy, and review!

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Chapter One - Reunion

A wolf's howl pierced the quiet afternoon, shaking Maina from the fantasy world of the scroll she was reading. Rolling it up, she returned it to its shelf, which was filled with other scrolls concerning fantastical stories, for she had no reason to read the more commonly collected historical scrolls. Another howl was sounded, and then another and another, by her numerous wolf messengers, some patrolling the boundaries of the forest, some within it, relaying the message. She smiled to herself - even the wolves had begun to take joy in his visits, it seemed. Of course, they were under orders to give a special howl to distinguish his arrival from that of other travelers, but they seemed to give that howl a happier tone each time he came. Perhaps they simply sensed his similar kinship and had begun to accept him as one of their own over the years, but she preferred to think they'd taken a liking to him.

She hurried out of her modestly sized castle and half walked, half jogged along the densely shaded path to the edge of the forest. He was still a hundred feet or so from the forest edge as she emerged to greet him. Two wolves stood at the end of the path, their sleek black fur shining in the sunlight. They each took to one side of the path, bowing their heads respectfully as she stepped out of the invisible barrier. Her long, dark brown hair shone a fiery red and gold, that quintessential red and gold of autumn, as she stepped out from the shade of the trees and finally allowed the sun to reach her. The sun brought to her skin a faint, golden glow, and even the red and white miko robes she wore seemed to become more magnificent. Even her eyes, also reminiscent of the forest with their unique blend of light blue, green, and silver, seemed to become brighter and more animated in the warm sunlight.

The new arrival smiled internally as he watched the sun bathe her, and he thought to himself, as he did nearly every time she came to greet him thus, _'She truly is a goddess of the forest..'_

He took his time in coming up to her, keeping up his eternal air of nonchalance, though he could have easily crossed the distance in a split second. It was an understood and often repeated act between the two of them, and she thus patiently waited for him to walk up to her. She took the time to admire him, as she often did; his silver, silken hair, nearly as long as her own, swaying as he walked; the white pelt, which was forever draped upon his right shoulder, also moving in time with his feet; the harsh, spiked armor contrasting with his fine white silks, which were accented with a red flower design. And then, there was his face, perfectly molded with piercing golden eyes, accented by magenta stripes on his cheeks and a blue crescent moon on his forehead. Yes, she had to admit, his face was quite effeminate, but the lithe, muscular body beneath his concealing attire certainly made up for that. She smiled to herself as that thought crossed her mind.

The little toad youkai, Jaken, walked, or, more specifically, waddled, alongside him as usual, carrying the staff of heads, which was easily twice his height. She had never really liked the imp, but it didn't matter - she always managed to find a nice, tedious activity to occupy his time in some far corner of her castle during his master's visits. Ah-Uhn, the two-headed dragon, had come along as well, and his reigns hung loose, for he followed obediently without being led by them.

"Lady Maina," said the visitor, having stopped only about a foot from her, and nearly towering her at that, "you really should show your true self more often. The humans will never give you the reverence you deserve if you continue to parade about as a simple miko."

"Weren't you the one who told me that mere mortals were not worthy of seeing the 'true glory' of a being such as I, Sesshoumaru?" she replied with a sly grin up at him. Sesshoumaru smirked, which was the closest he ever really came to smiling, reliving in his mind the conversation of which she spoke. Jaken simply stood there, having altogether missed out on this apparently private joke.

"Lord Jaken," a small girl whispered, leaning outward from behind Sesshoumaru's legs, where she had been hidden from Maina's view during the group's approach, "she didn't call Lord Sesshoumaru by his title.."

Sesshoumaru gracefully turned his head and addressed his young charge directly. "Lady Maina is a much higher-ranking creature than I, Rin. She is allowed to speak to me without the use of my title."

"I am not _that _much higher in rank than you. I may be a goddess, but you, my dear inuyoukai, are truly a god among your own kind," Maina said with a smile. _'Yes, a god among youkai, both on and off the battlefield..,' _she silently mused. "But enough small talk, you simply must tell me how you came to have a little human girl in your troupe!"

"It's a bit of a long story," he told her flatly.

"Yes, it _must_ be quite a long one. After all, it goes completely against your personality!" she remarked, laughing good-heartedly. "Either that, or else it has been so long since your last visit that you have begun to evolve into someone else without my knowledge…"

He said nothing to her, but instead replied with a facial expression, something, needless to say, quite rare on his part. Maina thought she might faint when she saw it.

He _smiled_.

It was the subtlest of smiles, one a passerby wouldn't have noticed in the least. It didn't stretch even halfway across his fine face, and his mouth did not open the slightest bit - she could detect not a hint of his ever-perfect, gleaming white fangs - but it was a smile nevertheless. And then, as if this was not enough, he let escape an amused, almost _joyful, _dare she think it chuckle. Well, more of a breathy 'humph' than a chuckle, but it was uncharacteristic all the same. How many years had it been since she'd seen such an expression on his face - or had she ever?

"Come, Lady Maina, I can relate it all to you as we take our usual tour around the forest," he said, walking past her and quickly disappearing onto the shaded forest pathway. Maina stood there for just a second in disbelief before collecting her wits and following.

Jaken watched the goddess of the forest walk off after Lord Sesshoumaru, noticing that she'd taken just a second or two longer than she should have. Once again, he had managed to miss the whole episode, having looked away at that choice moment, and was left to wonder just what Lady Maina had seen that was so strange as to delay her…

"Lord Jaken! Are you coming?" Rin called from up ahead, leading Ah-Uhn with her. Lady Maina was already several feet ahead of them. How in the world had they managed to get past him? He'd only stood there pondering for.. Well, it wasn't a very long time, at any rate.

"Coming!" he screeched, scurrying along after them.

Maina, looking human once more under the shade of the trees, soon caught up to Sesshoumaru and walked beside him the rest of the way down the path. Rin had climbed up onto Ah-Uhn's back shortly after passing through the forest's protective barrier, and Jaken scuttled along behind the dragon. Sesshoumaru fell back into his usual quiet manner as they walked, but, as Maina was well used to his behavior, his austere silence did not dampen her mood. She glanced around at the wolves accompanying them, wondering if she was only imagining that they seemed as happy as she.

As they came upon Maina's castle, Rin broke the silence with a little gasp of awe. Jaken simply rolled his eyes - it was by no means a large castle, after all, and a good half of it served as a shrine. Nevertheless, Rin jumped off the dragon's back and ran ahead of her lord and the forest goddess and up the three stairs onto the castle terrace. She stood before one of the thick beams which upheld its roof, tracing with her small fingers the intricate designs carved into the wood - images of ferocious creatures of the kind seen in artists' portrayals of Hell intermingled with fair beings of benign appearance, and all were bound together, twisted into the engraved vines.

She raised her head and gazed wondrously at the golden trim of the veranda's roof, which was carved into intricate, leafy vines which matched those of the support beams. Looking further, she saw that the magnificent gold trimmed the roof of the main part of the castle as well as the roofs of the open shrine portions.

Maina smiled to herself. It had been a long time since a child had visited her castle - she had almost forgotten how it felt to witness the great pleasure children seemed to take in things the adult world overlooked. Already, she decided, she liked the girl.

"Do you _live_ here, Lady Maina?" Rin asked, her large, sparkling eyes now turned to the goddess.

"Yes, I do, and for as long as your lord remains here, so will you," Maina replied, a wide smile stretching across her face. She simply couldn't contain the joy that seemed to reflect from the girl to herself. The girl's eyes lit up even more, if that were possible. "Come now, I'll show you and Jaken to your rooms, and then you can explore the entire castle if you like," she continued, stepping up onto the veranda herself.

"Really?" Rin gasped. "Rin can explore the whole thing? Every room?"

"Every nook and cranny, little one," she promised. Rin rushed inside to get a bit of a sneak peek before she was shown to her room. Maina laughed lightly and turned to one of her messenger wolves.

"Take Ah-Uhn to the stable. See that he is well fed and watered," she ordered. The wolf went up the dragon and, giving him a little nudge and taking his reigns in his mouth, led him towards the stable, which was hidden from view by the castle's westernmost wing. Maina then turned and entered the castle, Jaken following. Sesshoumaru remained where he was, standing near the stairs of the veranda, with an emotionless expression on his face, waiting for Maina to emerge from the castle again.

"You'll have your usual room if you prefer, Jaken. I trust you remember the way?" he heard her ask the imp as they disappeared inside.

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A/N: Hehe, nothing's happened yet, I know, but as you can see, it got pretty long and i had to split it up. Chapter 2 goes up sometime this weekend or perhaps earlier - _that's_ when things start to happen, and when everyone will probably be wondering wtf is going on.. It won't seem like it for, um, quite a while, but I _am_ trying to stay true to the characters' personalities as much as possible, so just bear with me until later on when things begin to be explained. Ki? Ki. 


	2. Just the Usual Security Measures

A/N: Posted early! What can I say? I've been working on this fic for a couple weeks, and am just now doing the final editing of the chapters I've finished, and now I'm finally posting it online... I'm all excitable - I couldn't wait to put up the second chapter (forsaking the pile of homework that I should be doing instead..)!

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Chapter Two - Just the Usual Security Measures...

With Ah-Uhn stabled and Jaken looking after Rin - a convenient way to busy him, Maina thought - Maina met Sesshoumaru outside, and they set out on their 'usual tour around the forest.' Walking along the concealed path, side by side, it would easily take them about twenty or thirty minutes to reach their destination, so the two of them took the time to catch up.

"It's been such a long time since you last came to visit me, Sesshoumaru.," Maina began, looking forward rather than at him.

"Yes, nearly a year, I believe. Much has happened since last I saw you, Maina," he replied, dropping the formalities. He kept his eyes ahead as well.

"Did the staff of heads lead you to the Tetsusaiga, as you were told it would?"

"Yes, and a good thing. It was quite well hidden from me."

"Where was it?"

"In my father's tomb. And the tomb itself? It turns out they hid it in the hanyou's pupil, of all places..," he said, turning his head to her with a smirk. She smiled.

"As Totosai said, the sword wasn't made for _you._"

"Yes, he made that quite clear.. But no matter, I could not even touch it."

"Ah, so a spell was put on it?"

"Of sorts. Only those with human blood can touch it."

"A lost cause, after all that searching…"

"Well, almost. I managed to attach to myself a human arm once, with a shard of the Shikon jewel inside, and almost took it from the whelp.."

"The Shikon jewel? Oh, that's right, I heard that it had reappeared recently… Wait a second! Did you say you _attached_ the arm to yourself?"

"Oh, of course, I didn't tell you that part.."

"What part?" she asked suspiciously. Sesshoumaru slid up his left sleeve, revealing a lesser youkai's arm, a bit shorter than his right arm was, which had been completely hidden by the long sleeve until then. Maina put a hand to her mouth, shocked. Once she regained her composure enough to speak, she said only one word.

"…How?"

"Hmmph. That was the whelp's doing as well - and he did it with the Tetsusaiga, no less. They call that karma, don't they?"

"You mean to say that Inuyasha was released from that spell he was under?"

"Yes, shortly after I began my search with the staff."

'_So he's awake at last..,' _she mused. "And he.. Cut off your arm?" she choked out, still in disbelief over it. He gave her a mischievous little grin.

"How do you like the new one? Killed its owner just yesterday."

"I… I _hate_ it! It's beneath you! It.. it sullies your perfect body!" she cried, not realizing what she'd said until a second or two after it had escaped her lips. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, but she remained strong. She crossed her arms haughtily. "Get rid of it. I don't want some dead creature's hand touching me."

"As you wish," he said, smirking as he ripped the arm off, leaving just a stump behind. He did it without care, as if he'd done the same countless times over, and did not even stop walking as he tore it away from his own flesh. Maina flinched a little, seeing what was left of his arm, but said nothing. "Are you sure you prefer the absence of an arm to the arm of a lesser creature?"

"Yes, definitely..," she trailed. The two of them looked ahead again. "Now then, please continue with your story. Did Inuyasha wield the sword the way Totosai described?"

"No, he just swung it around like a barbarian.. It took him a while simply to learn how to make it change into its true form."

"But he kept it?"

"Yes, and he has since learned the Kaze no Kizu technique - the attack which can slay 100 youkai at once - which has made him more successful in battle of course, but his fighting style is no better for it."

"So it's true then - it's as powerful as the old man said. But what about.."

"The Tenseiga?"

"Yes."

"It lived up to Totosai's praise as well."

"But you said before that it didn't work.."

"I didn't know then what exactly it was meant to do. But I assure you, it does work."

"What does it do then?" Sesshoumaru turned, looking her in the eye now.

"You said you wished me to tell you how I ended up with Rin?" Maina simply nodded, intrigued by the unfolding mysteries of the two swords, but also curious to know where he was going with this. He turned forward once again, pausing momentarily. "_That_ was the Tenseiga's doing."

"What do you mean? It healed her?"

"It resurrected her," he said simply, focusing on some object in the distance as he spoke. Maina, now staring wide-eyed at him, replied only with silence, so he elaborated. "I was injured in battle - a battle against Inuyasha, incidentally - and Rin happened to find me in the woods." Another pause. "She.. Brought me food and water, though I tried to tell her that I did not eat human food.. Anyway, a pack of wolves attacked the village where she lived, and she was killed. I found her body on the forest path that led to the village, and.."

"You used the Tenseiga to bring her back to life?"

"Yes. When I wield it, I can see the creatures from the underworld - the ones that come to take a person's soul when they die. The Tenseiga has the power to slay them, thus the soul remains and the person comes back to life." He glanced over at her, his face expressionless. He had only told her the facts of the matter, so why was she smiling at him like that?

"You saved her life. A little human girl - you _saved_ her.," Maina said, unable to keep the joy from her voice.

"I did no such thing. I was merely testing the abilities of my sword," he said coldly, matter-of-factly. But she knew better.

"So why do you keep her around, if she is merely an experiment?"

"I don't _keep_ her around. She followed me once she was resurrected - I simply allowed it. She could walk off at any time if she wished to do so, it would make no difference to me." He replied, avoiding Maina's face as he spoke. Fighting the huge grin that threatened to stretch across her face, she quieted, deciding to drop the subject for now. She studied him once again, only noticing then that there was a second sword at his side. That seemed a good enough topic to switch to.

"I see you've gotten yourself a new sword since your last visit. I take it that one does not have a benign purpose?"

Sesshoumaru ran his fingers over the hilt. "This is the Toukijin. I had it made from the fangs of a youkai who bit the Tetsusaiga in half."

Maina's eyes grew as large as saucers. "_Bit_ it?"

"It was repaired, in case you're curious, but the incident did give me the power to oppose it."

"I see. But what kind of youkai was it that had the power to break the Tetsusaiga?"

"It was one of many incarnations of a powerful hanyou called Naraku."

"Naraku.. I believe I've heard that name spoken by travelers before. It carries a sinister connotation," she pondered aloud. "But you say he's a hanyou?"

"He's actually composed of countless lesser youkai and a single human, so perhaps hanyou is not the appropriate term. However, he holds many Shikon jewel shards. I believe that's why he's able to create separate youkai incarnations from himself to do his bidding for him. He's Inuyasha's enemy - though he has crossed my path on occasion. He gives the whelp a difficult time, but he's quite a nuisance to me as well, actually. And he has such arrogance for a worthless creature like himself."

Maina chuckled lightly. _'Arrogance, you say?'_

About that time, they came upon an unremarkable section of woodland, quite a ways off the beaten path. Maina waved her hand across in the air near a certain tree, one that hadn't changed in the many decades it had been there, and her hand passed right through it. The tree and the air around it shimmered and rippled where she'd touched the edge of the barrier.

"We're here."

"You don't have to tell me - I can't count how many times you've led me here," he said with a sly smile - the type of smile she was accustomed to seeing him make, especially when they came here. The two of them walked through the barrier and the landmark tree. Once they had passed, the tree became realistic again, an unremarkable old tree in the woods.

Within the camouflage barrier, the landscape was much different. There was, in reality, a natural clearing here with a small stream running through it, in which Maina had had a small hut built, hidden away from the world. They walked inside, stepping into the main room - a large bedroom containing a wide, luxurious bed with silken sheets of white and scarlet red. Off to the side the second room could be seen, a smaller one almost entirely taken up by a large wooden tub - large enough for several people to bathe in at once.

'_I haven't come to her forest in nearly a year, and yet this place has managed to stay in pristine condition - not a speck of dust anywhere,' _Sesshoumaru pondered_. 'She's been waiting, _actively _waiting.. How many times has she visited this hut within the last year, cleaning it up again and again on the off-chance that I might arrive?'_

Maina crossed in front of him, tugging him along by his empty left sleeve, and sat on the edge of the bed. Sesshoumaru stood in front of her. She gave him a slight grin.

"Come now, I've waited months while you've gone out and done all sorts of exciting things. How can you be so cruel as to just stand there?"

"A few more minutes won't kill you..," he said coldly. But his eyes gave him away.

"You'll be sorry when you come to visit me one day only to find I've died of loneliness," she said, trying to appear as deadly serious as possible while stifling a girlish giggle.

"I'll find you dead, you say? Nice try, my goddess, but you're immortal," he said, slipping his hand under her hair and around the back of her neck. She closed her eyes as she felt the tips of his claws graze her skin.

"I must have forgotten..," she whispered, opening her eyes just halfway. He leaned in as if to kiss her, and she leaned forward to meet his lips, but he changed direction ever so slightly and missed her. Instead, he captured her bottom lip between his teeth and drew tiny beads of blood with his fangs. Her control wearing thin, she decided to take the offensive. Placing her hand at his jawbone and guiding his lips to hers, she claimed them. After a few moments, she licked at his lips, but he refused to open his mouth even a little for her to enter. She broke the kiss and glared at him.

"Why must you only tease me so after one of your lengthier absences?" she asked, more playfully than irritably.

"Simple - the more you long for me, the better reaction the teasing elicits from you."

"You're cruel," she said with a smile.

"Would you have me any other way?" He kissed her before she could answer, this time granting her full access to his mouth, which she immediately took advantage of. Sesshoumaru pushed her farther back onto the bed and crawled on himself, still kissing her, and they remained this way for some time. Maina, her tongue dancing with his, going back and forth from his mouth to hers, was in a deep sea of ecstasy. It had been so long since she'd tasted him like this. She knew his taste as thoroughly as he knew her scent, and it was just as she remembered it. But this… this was so much more than what memories could recreate in her fantasies.

As he began to pull at the fastenings on her clothes, she remembered just where she was, and her mind momentarily surfaced. She began to undress him as well, and it was not long before she was drowning in a much more intense ecstasy - one she would spend two straight days in.

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"Lord Jaken…"

"What is it _now_, Rin?" asked the imp, nearly screaming. He was sitting in the room that Lady Maina usually let him stay in, preparing for the next day, as it was getting late already. And now Rin, who he thought had gone to bed hours ago, had once again interrupted his thoughts - what an irritating child! He didn't know how Lord Sesshoumaru could stand to have her tagging along.. But then, it might not be too bad for him - he was always using Jaken as a babysitter, so he barely had to deal with her at all! He sighed in self-pity.

"Lord Jaken, just where did Lady Maina take Lord Sesshoumaru? It's been two days.."

"They've gone to tour the forest to ensure the security of the borders of the Western Lands. Lord Sesshoumaru always does so when we pass through this area," Jaken replied, turning to face the girl.

"But why is it taking so long?"

"It always takes a couple of days. The forest is much more expansive than you think."

"But Lord Sesshoumaru can travel really fast. Is Lady Maina slower than he is?"

'_Stupid child, always asking stupid questions..,' _Jaken mused. "The Lord has to be very thorough in securing Lady Maina's forest. It sits right on the border between the Western and Southern lands - a troublesome border indeed! Lady Maina's forest barrier provides a very good defense, but he must stop by periodically to make sure things are running smoothly here."

"So when do you think the Lord will be done checking the border?"

"I told you, it takes two days. If everything's going according to schedule, we should be leaving tomorrow morning," Jaken said angrily_. 'How many times must I repeat myself?' _he thought."Now get to bed, Rin, we have to be ready to begin traveling again."

"Okay Lord Jaken!" she said, spinning around and heading out of his room.

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A/N: Sooo.. ready to yell at me for screwing up Sesshie's character? "You bet your ass!" -"I'm hip." haha, random Blazing Saddles reference.. I promise you, it's all worked out - I've weaseled my way through the storyboarding phase to make this work. Trust me, Sesshie is still his not-so-lovable cold, arrogant, questionable-bad-guy self.

_Oh really? I'd say you've been making me wimpier with each chapter_.. No, I'm just trying to expose your less jerk-y self, muse. _Muse! _Would you prefer slave_ (fwack)_ _You're just a hopeless daydreamer._ Ow.. that hurt.. AUTHOR ABUSE! _Oh, just be quiet_.. _I'm only a personified voice in your head, after all_.. ...meanie.

Oh yes, and much thanks and special brownies go out to Chibi Usa, Lady Lestat, and Chibi Rin for ze reviewness. Yay!


	3. Dawn\'s Cruel Irony

A/N: I think this will be the normal update time from now on, unless I get really behind on my writing or something. In fact, Friday night is the only night of the week that I'm guaranteed to have no responsibilities looming over my head and that I can work on my writing all I want, yay! Of course, the updates might not be on the site until sometime Saturday.. Oh well.. I'm rambling again - if you keep reading this fic, you'll see just how_ much _I ramble.. oy. I'll shut up now..

Disclaimer (which I've forgotten about until this chapter.. heh..): I don't pretend to own any of the characters from Inuyasha, for any I've ever created pale in comparison (I bow deeply to Inuyasha's ingenius creator). However, I do own Maina, and any ideas associated with her, including the nature of her powers and the mythology I've created concerning her kind, and I own whatever other characters I may add in later. In other words, I will wreak havoc on your plagiarizing ass if you dare to steal my ideas. _(wide grin) _And now, with all the technical crapola out of the way, onto the fun!

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Chapter Three - Dawn's Cruel Irony

On the morning of the third day, Maina awoke just before sunrise. She could see from an eastern-facing window that the sky had just begun to lighten. She let out a long, breathy sigh. _'Sesshoumaru will be leaving today..' _

She rolled over, meaning to get out of the bed on the western side since her clothes had been thrown there two days ago, but was surprised to find Sesshoumaru next to her, still sleeping. She stayed still for a minute or two, just watching him. He looked so relaxed, so calm, while he slept - as if all the weight on his shoulders had been lifted away. There was no feigned indifference or false irritation - no pretense at all.

She had only seen him sleep deeply like this two or three times since she'd met him. Sure, he would sleep for a little while next to her after their escapades had depleted his energy, but he slept lightly - he even held the same blank expression that he usually did while awake - and he woke up in no time. If she was awake as well, they would often just repeat the whole process, having sex again and again, usually for several hours straight, before one of them ran out of energy and fell asleep. If he awoke before she did, as was the norm, since he didn't really need or want regular sleep, he would wander around the hut until she woke up. But now, he was fast asleep, and had been for several hours already, she knew, for he'd fallen asleep first that night. Like so many of the other little things he'd done on this particular visit, it wasstrange for him.

He looked so sweet as he slept…

'_Spending two full days in bed with him is nice, but it's not nearly sufficient.. Nor does it happen often enough..,' _she thought, another sigh escaping her lips.

A little reluctantly, she crawled out of bed on the eastern side, a part of her not wanting to leave the sight of his peacefully sleeping form. It was a miracle that the slight sounds of her movement over the bed had not alerted his sensitive hearing, and she did not want to chance walking over the floorboards near him to get her clothes. His haori was draped across the bottom corner of her side of the bed, and so she donned it instead. Holding it closed with one hand, since she didn't want to bother looking around for an obi, she walked over to the window and watched the colors of the sunrise filter though the trees, casting soft stripes of light over the room and herself. It was a beautiful sight, promising a beautiful day to come.

'_Nature is just as cruel as he,' _she thought with a smile, _'bringing the world around me such beauty on the day that he is to leave me again..'_

Suddenly, she felt something move across her stomach, and jumped a little. She looked down to a pleasant surprise: the familiar strong arm, with a clawed hand and youkai markings on the wrist, had slipped around her waist. She hadn't heard him approaching at all.

"Did I startle you, Maina?" he asked softly.

"Just a little.."

"Mm.." He pulled her against him and rested his head upon hers. She smiled to herself. He hadn't bothered to cover his own nakedness, as she could easily tell. She waited a moment, expecting him to direct her toward the bed and take her again - one last time before he left her forest for, well, even the gods didn't know how long it could be. But he didn't do that. He stayed right where he was, holding her against him, his cheek resting near her temple. A knotted warmth rooted at the pit of her stomach, and she happily watched the sunrise with him, trying her best to savor each moment of this bliss and carve it into her memory.

When the sun had mostly risen, and the pinks and purples of dawn had been dispelled, Sesshoumaru finally moved, gently pulling her along with him. Surprising her yet again, he went _around_ the bed and into the second room on the western side of the hut.

"Care to join me in a bath?" he asked her playfully.

"Of course. I'm sure we both need one," she replied with a grin. She opened up the side door, just outside of which ran the stream. Her hands began to glow as she effortlessly fashioned a simple barrier in the shape of an open tube. She slipped one end into the water, positioning it so that gravity would do the work for her, and extended the barrier-tube until it reached the tub. Once it had filled, she would remove it and use it later to drain the tub.

"It's fortunate you have such a great mastery of your powers; otherwise we'd be hauling water until sundown to fill this tub," Sesshoumaru remarked. As the tub was being filled, he opened up a sort of trap door in the floor of the bathing room, which led to the fireplace that would warm the bath. Soon enough, they had a full tub of comfortably hot water to bathe in.

Sesshoumaru, having returned from tending the fireplace, was the first to enter the bath. He nodded to Maina a moment later, letting her know that the water had reached the correct temperature, and she slipped his haori from her shoulders. The corners of Sesshoumaru's lips curled upward involuntarily. He wasn't able to control his expressions very well around her - something he'd found out long ago - especially when she stood before him like this, in her full glory.. _'Something mere mortals do not deserve to see,' _he thought, almost laughing aloud, as he was once again reminded of that night, many years ago, when he had told her so.

"Just what are you smiling at? Happy to see me in my 'true glory' again, I take it?"

"Hmmph. You tell me when I arrive that I've changed since last we met, and yet here you are, still able to read my mind.."

"Read your mind? That glazed-over look in your eyes is more than enough for me to tell what you're thinking," she replied with a smirk as she slowly climbed into the tub opposite him.

"Then I suppose you know what I'm planning to do to you, do you not?"

"That's even easier to see." Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he shot her a devious little grin.

"A pity. I was hoping to startle you again," he said, pushing off from his side of the tub and casually floating over to her. He positioned himself over her, his hand hanging onto the edge of the tub, and kissed her deeply.

"Don't worry," she said, breaking the kiss momentarily. "I'm sure you'll find some other way of making me jump.."

* * *

Maina's wolf servants had just removed the dishes Jaken and Rin had eaten lunch from, and Rin was just about to ask him how the wolves had managed to prepare all that food, when Sesshoumaru's voice boomed through the castle from outside.

"Jaken! Rin! Come, we're leaving now!"

Rin hopped right up and ran through the halls of the castle, but Jaken took a bit longer to get going, and soon the wolf servants were pushing him along with their noses. When he did get outside, his lord was standing before the castle, Rin and Ah-Uhn by his side, politely speaking with the lady goddess. All conversation stopped as Jaken came waddling out with the staff of heads and a trio of black wolves at his back, pushing and nipping at him as he tried in vain to bat them away. Sesshoumaru was always amused by the way Maina's servants made sure that the imp followed his commands, though he of course did not show it. Instead, he adopted an irritated look.

"Jaken.."

"Forgive me, my Lord, for not coming out faster, but we were just finishing lunch and.."

"And now you dare to interrupt me as well?"

"Uhp.." Jaken thought for a moment - indeed, Lord Sesshoumaru_ had _begun to talk to him! And hehadinterrupted! "Forgive me, my Lord!"

By this time, Sesshoumaru and the others had already started down the trail that led out of the forest, accompanied by two wolves.

"Your castle is amazing, Lady Maina! It has more rooms than Rin can count, and all of them are different, and they've all got so many little statues and pictures and things in them!"

"Thank you, Rin," Maina said, laughing lightly. "I'm glad you enjoyed your stay."

"Oh, Rin loved it! Rin got to play with the black wolves too - they're a lot more fun than Lord Jaken!" As if on cue, it was at that moment they heard the imp screech, "Wait for me, my Lord!" from somewhere behind them.

"Almost anyone would be more fun than Jaken, unless of course you prefer to step on people for entertainment, because in that case, there's no one better," Maina told the girl with a smile. She turned her gaze to Sesshoumaru. "I rather prefer your young charge to your old vassal, Sesshoumaru."

"Hmmph. She's just as noisy," he replied flatly, "though I must admit, her voice is much less irritating than Jaken's." Rin giggled, ecstatic that her lord had complimented her. Maina smiled to herself. _'He seems.. Warmer around her, I think. She's a sweet child, of course, and she obviously adores him, but..' _Her face straightened for a moment. _'Could it be that she's the reason Sesshoumaru seems to have changed?'_

They continued quietly down the path, and Maina dropped a bit behind Sesshoumaru and Rin. Ah-Uhn, with Jaken, who had just caught up, alongside him, walked just behind her, moving at her pace. She watched in silence the way the little girl in the orange and white checked kimono followed the taiyoukai like a shadow, keeping as close as she could to his legs but avoiding being kicked, as she seemed to know every detail of the way he walked. Suddenly, it hit her. The way she followed him, that adoring look in her young eyes, it was just like..

Maina's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she felt the liquid-like embrace of her barrier. They'd come to the edge of the forest and passed through the barrier without her even noticing how far they'd walked.

"Farewell, Lady Maina," Sesshoumaru said politely, stopping and turning to face her. "I thank you for your hospitality toward Jaken and Rin during my stay."

"You are quite welcome, Sesshoumaru," she replied, polite and stone-faced as he. She then bent down towards his young charge. "I very much enjoyed meeting you, Rin. Make sure that your lord comes to visit again soon!"

"I will, Lady Maina!" Rin said with a bow.

Maina straightened, ready to wave them off, when suddenly Sesshoumaru's face grow intensely serious. "Sesshoumaru?" she questioned apprehensively.

"Naraku.. His scent is in the air," he said quietly. "Get back inside the barrier, all of you." Rin, Jaken, and Ah-Uhn began to run back into the forest, but they hadn't gotten within a foot of its boundary when a white blur swooped down, seemingly out of nowhere. Before anyone, even Sesshoumaru, could react, the thing scooped up Maina and took to the sky again. The creature stopped for a moment in the air above them, and Sesshoumaru immediately recognized the familiar white baboon pelt. In his arms, Naraku held Maina, who seemed to have been knocked unconscious. A second later, he was rushing off towards the east. Sesshoumaru growled menacingly at the sky in the direction Naraku had gone.

"M-my Lord?" Jaken stammered.

"Take Rin and go back to the castle. You are to stay there until I return." With that, a swirling cloud formed around Sesshoumaru's feet, and he lifted off the ground and sped away eastward.

* * *

A/N: Sigh.. there's a cliffhanger_ and _the happy fun stuff is over.. See, I thought I would write this fic a little backwards, namely by having the happy (near)lemon stuff in the beginning and the danger and complications afterwards instead of having the couple go through all the danger and complications before getting a single happy lemon moment.. Hehe. Of course, things will change between our protagonists by the time it's all over - that's what love stories are for after all! - but isn't it fun to go about it a little differently? Ah, well, fun for me at least - and more to fantasize over, ne?

_Pervert.. I heard that. _

I could always go against my 'no lemons' promise, you know.

_What do you mean? _

I'm being nice to you by leaving your more.. personal moments.. to my reader's imaginations. It's not like I can't just edit a little here and there and give them some more details about your, let's just say, 'bedside manner..'

_...you wouldn't dare. _

Oooh, wouldn't I, Sesshie, wouldn't I?

_Don't call me 'Sesshie,' you pathetic human.. _

Oh, look who's acting like a person now instead of a personified voice in my head.. _(grins) _

_... you really are irritating, you know.._


	4. The Hanyou in the Baboon Pelt

A/N: The author dances. She didn't recieve any reviews after posting chapter three, but no matter. She is rejoiceful, for the fourth chapter is finally done. Yay!

* * *

Chapter Four - The Hanyou in the Baboon Pelt... And the Hanyou in Red

When Maina regained consciousness, she found herself suspended in the air above a large, flat-topped boulder that formed a platform of sorts. A low-level youkai stood behind her, holding a long black whip. She was bound by chains on her feet and strange coverings, shaped like vases and made of some sort of rock, over her hands, which were connected to more chains. The rock platform over which she hung was near the edge of a clearing surrounded by dense trees and foliage. She didn't recognize this place - the varieties of plant life even differed somewhat from those in her forest. For a moment she was confused - she remembered Sesshoumaru and his followers were leaving her forest, and she was saying her goodbyes, and then it all went black - and she'd found herself _here_.

"Ah, you're awake. I suppose my puppet wasn't too harsh with you after all," a deep voice said from the center of the clearing, a hundred feet or so from her. She turned her head to see a man with long, wavy dark hair wearing a white baboon pelt, the head dangling between his shoulder blades - his discarded hood. He was twirling what looked like a wooden doll between his fingers. She suddenly remembered seeing the white blur that knocked her out - it must have been him. She began to concentrate her power in her hands, but they wouldn't respond.

"Don't bother trying to use your powers, goddess, the gloves I've made for you will prevent it," he said mockingly.

"I can't use my barriers to protect myself, huh? So what? You can't kill me, even if I'm completely defenseless. I'm immortal," she spat back at him.

"Oh, I know that. But I can make you suffer. I can make you _wish_ for death." Right on cue, the youkai standing behind her cracked his whip across the middle of her back, making her yelp, both in surprise and pain.

"You're quite a lucky find, goddess. A creature that can be hurt and tortured indefinitely but cannot die. There's no end to the fun I can have with you.."

"Sick bastard, do you have _any _ideawhat I could do to you?"

"What could you do, exactly? You're a defensive goddess - a protector. Not a warrior," he said with an arrogant smile.

"As soon as I get out of these gloves of yours, I'll show you just what a protector god is capable of," she retorted, with an even more arrogant air than his own.

"Ku ku ku," he snickered. The youkai began to whip her again, but though the wounds stung beyond belief and sent blood flowing down her backside in rivers, she refused to give him the satisfaction of voicing her pain.

"Perhaps I'll have to test you out one day..," he trailed as a large, bee-like insect flew up to him. It buzzed at him, and, judging by his face, he seemed to understand it. He turned his attention back to Maina. "It seems I've got an inuyoukai hunting me. Friend of yours, perhaps?" Maina did not answer him, so he continued, "This could prove amusing. Maybe I should let down my barrier so he can track me a bit more easily, what do you say?"

* * *

"I'm not gonna argue with you over this, Inuyasha! I have to go back home next week, whether you like it or not. I have a math test, and I'll fail it for sure if I don't get a couple days of peace and quiet to study for it!"

"We can't just postpone the search for the jewel shards every time you happen to have a test, _Kagome_!"

"I did you the favor of telling you in advance so you could prepare for it - it's not like I just popped up one morning and said, 'Hey, I'm leaving for three days. Bye!'"

"Advance or not, you're still not going! Who knows when Naraku might show his ugly face again?"

"Err.. SIT!" Kagome yelled in a huff, crossing her arms in front of her and storming past Inuyasha, who was now lying in his own custom-made crater in the ground.

"Don't pay attention to him, Kagome, he's just upset that we haven't gotten any leads for a while," Miroku said calmly, his shakujou jingling slightly as he walked up beside her. "At the rate we're going, I don't think that you being gone for a few days is going to hinder the search." Inuyasha could be heard cursing, and not quite under his breath, behind them.

"Miroku's right, Kagome," Sango contributed, coming up on Kagome's other side. "And besides, it would be nice to take a few days rest. We've been wandering around for days and getting nothing done, so what's the harm in doing nothing while relaxing?" Kirara, curled up in Sango's arms, cooed her agreement.

"Shippo's probably missing us anyway, waiting around in Kaede's village for his safety when we aren't even doing anything dangerous," Kagome said with a laugh. Abruptly, though, her face went serious, and she stopped in her tracks.

"Kagome, what is it?" Sango asked.

"I sense jewel shards - a lot of them!"

"Enough that it might be Naraku?" Inuyasha asked,walking up from behind them, still picking dirt and grass out of his hair.

"Uh huh," she answered meekly. Inuyasha crouched down, inviting her to climb on his back.

"Lead the way, Kagome."

* * *

A few minutes later, the group was speeding through a patch of dense forest, doing their best to avoid hitting the trees, with Inuyasha carrying Kagome and Sango and Miroku on the transformed Kirara. Then, out of the blue, Naraku's scent filled Inuyasha's nose. It could have knocked him backwards, he thought, with its sudden strength.

"Did we just pass through Naraku's barrier?" he yelled.

"There wasn't any barrier," Miroku called back.

"Then how come I can suddenly smell where Naraku is?"

"I don't know - maybe he knows we're here and is trying to lead us into a trap," Miroku replied.

"Could it be one of his incarnations you're smelling?" Sango chimed in.

"I don't know, and I don't really care. I'm following it," Inuyasha said, speeding off in the direction his nose pointed him, no longer needing Kagome's directions. Even with all the trees to dodge, it was much easier to keep in the right direction when he could sense it himself.

"Well, it's not an incarnation..," Kagome yelled into the wind.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"The scent is leading us straight to the jewel shards. It's Naraku himself this time."

* * *

"If Sesshoumaru really is coming here, then he will kill you," Maina told the man in the baboon pelt heatedly. He smiled deviously, evilly.

"Ah, so you _are_ on friendly terms, aren't you? He's not the type to let people get away with disrespect, after all." She paused for a moment, fighting the threatening blush.

"I'm a higher being than he, you worthless smart mouth. He refers to _me _with a title," she retorted, thinking quickly. "And just who are you to talk of respect? You should _bow _to me when you speak, youkai."

"Just what do you plan to do about it? You're a bit tied up at the moment."

"Damn you and your cheap puns!" she yelled, which only got her a few more lashings with the whip.

"Look at this, now you're disrespecting me as well, goddess," he yelled. "You're to refer to me as your master!"

"Why.. bother?" she asked between the last of the whippings. "You'll be sliced up beyond recognition as soon as Sesshoumaru arrives!"

The arrogant youkai suddenly turned his head towards the woods, and she followed his gaze. Even the one who'd been whipping her grew quiet and seemed to be waiting. She heard a rustling of leaves, quickly increasing in volume, heralding a newcomer who was getting closer and closer. Maina smirked.

"Prepare to die, you sick son-of-a-bitch," she said under her breath. Sure enough, a man with long silver hair slashed through a patch of foliage and stepped into the clearing.

A man.. wearing red. And drawing a sword that quickly transformed from a rusty old katana into a huge youkai sword with fur, suspiciously looking like dog fur, above the hilt.

"Naraku!" he growled in a voice that was definitely not Sesshoumaru's. He stood before the man in the baboon pelt, and she studied him. He had the same hair, yes, but strange ears.. Were they dog's ears? She gasped, the pieces at last coming together in her mind. _'Could this be Sesshoumaru's hanyou brother, Inuyasha?'_

Three humans emerged from the woods behind him - a man, obviously a monk from his attire, a woman in a tightly fitting black outfit and armor, and a second woman wearing a scandalously short green and white kimono - a very strangely designed one. The monk and the first woman rode atop a neko youkai while the second woman rushed alongside them on foot. The two on the neko dismounted and stood behind Inuyasha, the monk brandishing his shakujou and the first woman a large boomerang. The woman in the strange kimono held a bow and wore a quiver of arrows over her shoulder.

Naraku looked surprised for a second - he obviously wasn't expecting to attract anyone other than Sesshoumaru - but he quickly composed himself. Inuyasha wasted no more time, though, and raised his gigantic sword to attack. Naraku jumped back and rose into the air as hundreds of brown, creeping tentacles grew from beneath the baboon pelt. A hundred or so snake-like lesser youkai joined the fray, flying in a great mass, seemingly out of nowhere, against the band of attackers. The youkai were killed easily by the odd troupe, leaving their mutilated corpses lying all over the ground. Inuyasha, the humans, and the neko began to bat away, tear away, and slice off the tentacles in an attempt to get to Naraku, but they just kept coming as they regenerated over and over again. And all the while those bee-like insects were flying around them in a fury..

* * *

Kagome stabbed at the tentacles with one of her sacred arrows, not able to do much else to help. Miroku and Sango were more effective at fighting them back, but they were getting nowhere, and Inuyasha couldn't seem to get a good shot in anywhere with his Tetsusaiga. For a few moments, since she was positioned behind Miroku and Sango, she was able to stop fighting back the tentacles and get a better look at their surroundings. After all, she reasoned, she might be able to spot something that could help them. That's when she saw the woman..

She was hanging by several chains from a great tree, suspended above a rock platform. A lesser youkai, looking like an overgrown salamander walking on two legs - which was probably one of Naraku's servants, rather than an incarnation - stood behind her, holding a whip. The woman was wearing the red and white clothing of a miko, and had long dark hair, making Kagome take a more thorough look at her. Her face was nearly hidden by the feathered hair that seemed to float about it, but she was definitely not Kikyou. She was covered in blood, and her clothing had been torn to ribbons by whiplashes, which had been directed mostly at her back, but also at her legs. There were even a couple of wounds on her stomach, and one went across her chest, right below her collarbone.

As Kagome began to fight off more of the tentacles, she couldn't help wondering if that woman had anything to do with why Naraku had been so easy to find..

* * *

In an instant the battle came to a halt as a giant oak came crashing down into the clearing, nearly landing on the woman in the short kimono, its trunk cut clean through and sizzling where it had been severed. From behind it came Sesshoumaru, his hand still glowing green with poison. It took him no time at all to locate Maina, but it took him a second or two to erase the look of utter horror which crossed his face when he saw her condition. He didn't seem to be able to keep his usual façade of indifference up - his expression was pure and unbridled, and his full, undivided attention was on her.

But after this brief instant his eyes began to glow red, and a growl resounded from deep in his throat. He leapt onto the rock platform, slicing the youkai who brandished the whip through the stomach with his poison claws, leaving him in two lifeless pieces on the ground. He would have liked to have made the creature's death more painful, more drawn out, but he simply didn't have the time. He quickly went to work, burning through Maina's chains with his poison. The solid gloves that encased her hands were thicker, and it took him almost a full minute to break through the first one.

"He hurt you," he said at last, his voice somewhat ragged.

"I'll be fine..," she uttered, still taken aback by seeing him put in such a state. He knew that she was immortal, after all; he knew that nothing that despicable Naraku creature did to her would really harm her, but still he acted as if she were in danger of dying..

As he was raising his claws to begin on the second glove, Naraku seized his opportunity. With his full focus on liberating the wounded and bleeding goddess, the taiyoukai didn't sense the coming attack in the least.

* * *

The battle had paused for a moment as the tree crashed down and Sesshoumaru entered the clearing - Naraku's tentacles even stopped trying to block the group's efforts. Inuyasha was just as shocked as everyone else to see his brother there, but he waved the concern from his mind, telling himself that Sesshoumaru had simply caught Naraku's scent and pursued him, just as they had done. While Naraku was still distracted, Inuyasha began his attack again, drawing Naraku out of his momentary stupor and forcing him to continue the fight. Miroku and Sango thus had to continue their part of the battle as well. Only Kagome kept her eyes on Sesshoumaru long enough to see the horrified look that crossed his face as he looked at the woman in the miko outfit, but she soon turned back to the battle as well, forcing any suspicions that had arisen in her mind to depart so that she could concentrate on the tentacles that threatened her and her friends.

But soon enough, the battle was interrupted again as a woman's panicked cry pierced the air.

"SESSHOUMARU!"

* * *

A/N: The author continues dancing, despite all the insults she's getting from her Sesshie muse for doing so, for she's left you all with yet another cliffie _(evil laugh)_ This chapter and the next are frustrating me, though.. I'm just no good at battle scenes. That's all there is to it. Sigh. It's been a long time in the making.. and editing.. and revising.. and editing again.. but this is as good as it's gonna get. Hope you liked it - and please REVIEW, whether you did or not! (besides, you might know better about battle scenes than me.. and I could use advice in that, if you haven't noticed.. T.T) 


	5. Sympathy for an Enemy

AN: I've been writing a lot this weekend, and I'm several chapters ahead, so I'm gonna be super nice and post this one early. It's short anyway.. heh. But in return for my niceness, everyone needs to review it. _(points accusingly at the elusive "everyone") _Don't forget!

Oh yes, and I forgot the disclaimer last time.. again. But I remembered this time!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from Inuyasha, though I do harbor illegal copies as muses. Or voices in my head, whichever you prefer. But Maina is my character, and I've put a lot of thought into creating the mythology stuffs and whatever else concerning her, so no one had better steal her, because I'll be pissed and start suing people.. plus my Sesshie muse will be angry, and no one wants that. Hehe.

* * *

Chapter Five - Sympathy for an Enemy

Pain crossed Sesshoumaru's face as one of Naraku's wide tentacles burst forth from his stomach, sending blood and pieces of flesh flying through the air. It had stabbed him through in a split second, and he hadn't sensed it coming at all. The bloodied tentacle lifted him into the air and threw him savagely onto the hard ground.

"SESSHOUMARU!" Maina cried, too late. For a moment, all she could do was stare at him, forsaking the eyes that stared at her from the battlefield. She watched him, desperately, for any movement, any sign of life, but no matter how hard she looked, she could see nothing. His body was just lying there, slumped on the ground in a pool of blood, the offending tentacle still hovering over him. Gathering her strength, she jumped down from the rock platform, one hand still encased in a glove with a broken chain hanging from it, and fell to her knees beside him, still finding not even the slightest sign of breathing, nor of a heartbeat..

Tears welling up in her eyes, she violently wrenched the remaining rock glove off, ripping her skin open and crushing the bone in her thumb by doing so, and she placed her hands over his body. A soft light spread over him, rippling outward from her hands, and then dissipated. At least her barrier would keep the monster from desecrating his corpse…

The shocked and horrified words and gasps of disbelief that came from Inuyasha and his comrades escaped her ears as a terrible rage began to burn through her body, spreading like wildfire, feeding on her weaker feelings of shock and sadness. Her tears left her as her hands began to glow with power. She turned to face Naraku, who was not laughing, but whose face had just the slightest hint of a smile, which was more than enough for her.

The woman Inuyasha's troupe had assumed was human took on a fearful appearance as she rose to her feet beside Sesshoumaru's lifeless body, covered in his blood as well as her own. Her eyes began to grow noticeably red, even from their distance, and she pointed those eyes right at Naraku - even _he_ seemed a little afraid.

"Die," she said simply, quietly, as if Sesshoumaru himself were speaking through her. She lifted her glowing hands, and, almost immediately, countless jagged objects, looking much like broken shards of glass, flew from her and cut Naraku open in dozens of places, slicing through his flesh and lodging themselves in or near vital areas of his body. Stepping over Sesshoumaru's body, the woman began to walk toward Naraku, her aim becoming more and more precise with each step. Naraku tried to flee, as he often did when he was in real trouble, but just as quickly the woman rose her hands towards the sky and erected a semi-circular barrier in midair, a hundred or more feet away from where she stood, placing it right in Naraku's path. Inuyasha and the others snapped out of their amazed state to take advantage of the strange woman's powers.

"KAZE NO KIZU!"

Inuyasha's attack hit Naraku almost dead-on, slicing through his body, just missing his head - but to his surprise as well as Inuyasha's, the attack bounced off the barrier, causing it to hit him a second time. The ordeal left Naraku's body in pieces, and bits of him began to fall to earth, but from the midst of the dense cloud of mutilated body parts, the battle-worn Inuyasha spotted his head, still alive, laughing at them.

Inuyasha attempted the Kaze no Kizu attack again, but the head managed to dodge him. Sango hurled her Hiraikotsu to no avail. Maina sent more of her flying daggers at him, and he managed to avoid those as well. Kagome shot an arrow at him, but it was knocked out of the sky by a falling chunk of his body. Miroku even tried to use his kazaana, despite the poisonous insects flying about, but Naraku's head was simply too far away and blocked by too many miscellaneous chunks of flesh, and so he closed it again.

"Damn him, he's escaped us again!" Inuyasha yelled, his voice rough with frustration, watching helplessly as the head flew around the barrier and disappeared into the clouds, with several of the more vital chunks of his body following.

"Escaped..," Maina echoed softly, her voice dripping with a bitter sense of defeat. She dropped to her knees, her quickly departing rage leaving her an empty shell of the person she'd been just a minute before. The barrier in the sky broke apart and disappeared. Her tears returned to her and flowed freely, and she put her intact hand to her face in an effort to hide them. "I let him get away.. I let the bastard escape with his life..," she said to herself, her voice choked. Kagome, ever the kind-hearted sympathizer, kneeled down beside her and put a supportive arm around her shoulder.

"We really should get your wounds looked at," she said softly, gesturing to Maina's blood-soaked clothing. Maina tried to speak, but what came out was a pitiful sob that she would've rather not let out in public. The rest of the group gathered around her, anxious to find out more about the strange circumstances of the battle they'd just fought.

"Can you tell us who you are? And why Naraku targeted you?" Miroku asked gently.

"My name.. is Maina..," she said, struggling to control her tears and keep her voice steady as she looked up at the monk, dropping her hand from her eyes.

"And you're a miko?" Sango asked. Maina turned toward the taijiya and opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. Her eyes widened in apparent disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked her before glancing in the direction she was looking. Kagome gasped in shock, and her arm fell limp from Maina's shoulder.

"Out of my way..," uttered a shaky, but nevertheless stern, voice from behind Sango. She turned and nearly fell backwards as none other than Sesshoumaru pushed his way between her and Miroku, covered in blood and leaning heavily on the Tenseiga as if it were a cane.

"Sesshoumaru.. You're alive," Maina whispered.

He took just two more shaky steps before falling to his knees before Maina, still keeping a death grip on the sword. If at all possible, he looked paler than usual, and his eyes fluttered a bit as he forced them to stay open. He was on the verge of passing out.

"…Maina..," he whispered, looking with concern at the deep gash across her chest.

"I'm fine, really.," she said softly, tears threatening to fall again. One corner of his mouth lifted the slightest bit before his head fell to his chest. Maina's eyes widened again, and she grasped his head in both her hands and placed her ear as close to his mouth as she could, desperately listening for breathing. She sighed with relief when she heard it, but knew that he very well could die if his wounds weren't tended to. He could die, in just the same way his father had so many years ago..

"He's only fallen unconscious," she said simply, her voice deceptively calm and rational, "but he needs medical attention."

"Well, we could.." Miroku was interrupted when Maina unexpectedly threw her head back and began to howl loudly.

"She's.. a wolf youkai?" Sango asked in disbelief.

"But she's dressed as a miko," Miroku pondered aloud.

"She doesn't smell like a youkai at all, much less a mangy wolf..," Inuyasha stated quietly.

Within seconds, a jet-black wolf ran at full speed into the clearing, slipping right between Inuyasha's legs and stopping in front of Maina.

"Get Ah-Uhn," she told the wolf. The wolf ran off, howling as he went. They could hear other wolves, farther away, relaying the message. Maina began to tear off strips of her already ruined hakama and wrap them around Sesshoumaru's stomach in an effort to slow the bleeding. In just a few minutes, much less time than it would have taken the wolf to go to the forest and get the dragon, Sesshoumaru's familiar steed was seen flying overhead at full speed. As he landed beside the little gathering of people, Maina began to lift Sesshoumaru's torso. She glared at Inuyasha and the humans, who were just standing there.

"Isn't anyone going to help me?" she asked angrily. Since Inuyasha wasn't about to touch his brother, unconscious or not, and with him being the only other man there, Miroku knew he'd have to be the one to help. Lifting Sesshoumaru's legs, the two of them moved his body onto Ah-Uhn's back. Maina then climbed onto the dragon as well, sitting as far back as possible on his wide haunches and holding onto Sesshoumaru's motionless body. She positioned him so that he was mostly lying down, with his shoulders and head resting on her chest. Lastly, she carefully slipped the Tenseiga back through his obi, knowing now its powers of resurrection and wanting to keep it in constant contact with his body, should his life become endangered by blood loss. She finally took hold of Ah-Uhn's reigns.

Though Inuyasha was perfectly content to let his brother leave, dying or not, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango were conflicted. However, Kagome was the only one who dared to risk invoking Inuyasha's anger by voicing her concern for their endangered enemy. She stepped up to Ah-Uhn just as he was readying for take-off.

"It might be a good idea to take him to Kaede's village for healing. She's a very skilled miko, and she's managed to help Inuyasha with life-threatening wounds on several occasions…"

Maina looked doubtful for a moment, and glanced at Sesshoumaru's face.

"How do I get there?" she asked quietly. Kagome smiled.

"Just follow us, we'll take you there."

* * *

AN: Short one, ne? And for all the time I spent revising and rewriting it.. Grrr. Battle scenes are not my friend, I tell you. I can never seem to get them just right.. Oh, and don't mind me _seemingly_ getting out of character a lot, because I'm really not - you'll just have to keep reading to find out why. Evil authors are like that, with all our storyboarding and re-storyboarding and all.. Come to think of it, if I'm not careful I'll end up doing some scene wrong because I cut out some small detail from a previous one and then things won't make sense.. Eep.

And if anyone cares, I'm gonna be starting another fic soon.. a less serious and less complicated one than this. Boy, did I make a complicated plot line for my first attempt at a fanfic.. ugh. Anywho, it's gonna be a more fun one, and a more out of character one, not to mention it's based on one of the strangest pairings you'll probably ever see, haha! I haven't gotten the beginning worked out yet though, so it could be next month or it could be June.. who knows. Spring is not conducive to writing, what with finals, AP tests, and I'm taking the ACT and SAT within like.. a week of each other? And then comes the summer job thing. Lovely. But with new story ideas flooding my mind, how can I resist?

Oh yes, and don't forget to review! High-strung perfectionists need encouragement! And even if you hate the thing, hey, at least I know someone's been reading it..


	6. Introductions

AN: Wow, guess it's a good thing I put up an early chapter last week. School's been hell this week, and I've been running on 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night... So yeah, I didn't feel like revising and re-formatting this chapter, which was a great pain in the ass anyway. Oh well. Just a warning, this is one of those long explaination chapters.. which I hate writing as much as you probably hate reading. But you're gonna need it to understand the rest, so just bear with me. Heh. And if you get through it without nodding off, please leave me a review..?

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Chapter Six - Introductions

"This is just stupid. He's gonna wake up and slaughter all the villagers before he even _thinks_ of how he wants to kill all of us!" Inuyasha fumed.

"He's not going to kill anyone with a wound like that!" Kagome retorted, trying not to shout, though her patience was wearing thin.

"How could you even think of bringing that bastard here? The next time he decides to go out and try to kill me for no reason, he's gonna come here first!"

"If he wanted to kill you, I'm sure he'd have no trouble tracking you down. He would find the village on his own if you were in it," Kagome said dryly.

"You should listen to your woman, hanyou, she's wiser than you." Both of them turned with wide eyes to Sesshoumaru.

"Ah, you're awake, that's a good sign!" Kagome said, trying to sound as happy as possible.

"Yes, and as you can plainly see, Inuyasha, I'm not slaughtering any of your precious villagers," he said arrogantly, despite the highly undignified groans he made as he tried to sit up.

"Sit still, Sesshoumaru," Maina said sternly from her seat just behind him. "You'll tear your wounds open if you move around too much."

"Hmmph," he said, lying back down again. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. Had he just done what someone else had told him to do?

"Oh, so he's awakened, has he?" said Kaede, walking into the hut with a basket of herbs.

"Just now," Maina answered her.

"How long have I been out?" Sesshoumaru asked, turning his head to Maina, though the best angle he could get was a view of her knee.

"Not too long. The battle was around noon, and it's almost sundown now. I believe we'll be eating soon," she told him.

"Aye," Kaede added. "Sango began the cooking some time ago."

"And I _would_ be helping her if someone didn't keep following me around and yelling about how I let his wounded brother come to the village with us," Kagome said, with an irritated glance at Inuyasha. He shot one back, but then seemed to think better of it.

"Do you have any ramen with you?" he asked hopefully. She sighed.

"Plenty. I'll go help Sango with dinner now, and I promise we'll have ramen to go with it," Kagome told him, walking out of the hut. Inuyasha, not wanting to be around Sesshoumaru but still concerned about the security of the village, went outside to patrol. With them gone, Kaede kneeled down beside Sesshoumaru's bed.

"Your wounds are quite serious, Sesshoumaru. Ye should rest for at least a week."

"I am a youkai, old woman, my body will heal itself much faster than a human's would, or than Inuyasha's would, for that matter," he said, annoyed already to find where they'd brought him and more so upon hearing how long this little visit could last.

"Even taking that into account, I still advise ye to rest for a week," the old miko said, undaunted by his attitude. She was used to working with surly inuyoukai, after all. She studied him for a few moments. "I think we should change your bandages after dinner, that way ye can get to sleep earlier. Your body, youkai or not, will need plenty of sleep to heal such a wound." Sesshoumaru simply glared at her.

"I know she's a human, but she's helping you, so show her some manners, will you?" Maina whispered loudly. Kaede chuckled.

"Just keep him from straining himself, and I will see how dinner's coming along," the miko said with a smile as she raised herself onto her feet. As soon as she had left the hut, Sesshoumaru spoke again.

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked quietly.

"The young miko told me that Lady Kaede was a skilled healer and could help with a wound such as yours," Maina told him, shuffling over the wooden floor to sit at the side of the bed, within his field of view.

"What young miko?"

"Kagome, the one you call Inuyasha's woman. Lady Kaede tells me she's a developing miko."

"Ah, her.."

"Yes, and you should be thanking her for offering to lead me here. You were on the verge of death just a few short hours ago and yet here you are, not even unconscious anymore." Sesshoumaru ran his fingers over his bandaged stomach.

"On the verge of death..," he repeated softly. Maina's eyes narrowed as images of the battle entered her mind once again.

"You _were_ dead, for a while.. The Tenseiga, it resurrected you. It must have - I checked myself for breathing and a pulse, but there was nothing..."

There were a few moments of silence before she spoke again. "Can it really do that? Resurrect someone on its own, I mean?"

"It can resurrect _me _that way. I am its owner, after all."

"Did Totosai tell you that?"

"I found out from firsthand experience.." Maina eyes grew wide, but she tried to keep a calm voice.

"Then.. It's saved your life before. When?"

"When Inuyasha hit me with the Tetsusaiga's Kaze no Kizu attack some months ago."

"So, when you left the last time, with the staff of heads, to search for the Tetsusaiga..," Maina began quietly, staring intently at the floor, "that could have been the last time I ever saw you.."

"Don't be so melancholy," he said coldly.

"I saw you _die_, Sesshoumaru!" she nearly shouted, her voice finally cracking. "And after, by some miracle, you'd come back to life, I held you in my arms atop Ah-Uhn and watched your life blood ebbing away despite my efforts to stop it, and I couldn't do anything but hope that we arrived here in time to save you!"

"Maina..," he began, his eyes softer now. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply.

"Just rest, Sesshoumaru," she told him impassively, opening her haggard eyes again, the only remaining signs of the desperation she felt. "I'm going to take a look around the village." She promptly stood and walked out of the hut, leaving Sesshoumaru a bit bewildered in his bed.

Maina walked slowly about, keeping near the hut but avoiding Inuyasha, who was pacing back and forth near the edge of the village, only fifty feet or so away. Upon reaching a large tree, she stopped and leaned against it, watching the peaceful villagers going about their daily activities. They didn't seem the least bit on edge - she'd assumed Inuyasha would have gotten them into a frenzy by now with all his talk. For a few minutes her eyes stayed glued to a horse whose long reigns were tied to a post beside his owner's hut. He was trying to reach some wild berries hanging from a vine that had wrapped itself around a nearby tree. The berries were just out of his reach, but he tirelessly pulled against the reigns anyway. Her mind drifted off at some point, but her eyes remained on the horse.

"Lady Maina, what are you doing out here?" She jumped a little. Kagome, coming up from behind her, laughed lightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay, my mind was just off in space somewhere, that's all."

"Is Sesshoumaru still resting?" Maina only nodded in response. An awkward silence followed.

"Sooo, how are _your_ wounds doing?" Kagome asked.

"Oh, just fine," Maina answered, suddenly having entered a better mood. She lifted up her white chihaya to reveal part of her stomach and back, tracing a faint white line with her finger. "You see? You can barely even tell where the wounds were now, and soon even these scar lines will be gone. And as you've already noticed, I assume, my hand has healed as well."

"I guess I should have expected it. Gods are the next step up from youkai, so it makes sense that you heal faster than they do."

"It's easier to heal when your body doesn't have to concentrate first on surviving," she said with a smile. "I think my bloodied clothes bothered me more than my wounds did. Lucky that Lady Kaede had some miko clothing in a smaller size than her own!"

"That's come in handy for me as well, actually..," the novice miko mused.

"So, Kagome, why are you out? I thought you were helping with the cooking."

"Well, since Lady Kaede is a better cook than either me or Sango, I figured I was just in the way. Besides, Inuyasha doesn't like my cooking very much if what I'm cooking is anything other than ramen, and I finished that before Lady Kaede even arrived in the kitchen - it cooks really fast, you see. And the rest of the food was almost ready.."

"I see."

"But you never answered my question. Why are _you_ outside?" For a second or two, Maina seemed to seek her answer on the ground near her left foot.

"Just wanted some fresh air, that's all," Maina said, her tone more gloomy than before.

"Kagome!" The both of them turned around to see Sango, no longer in her battle attire, of course, carrying two large dishes of food. "Dinner's ready!"

* * *

Maina and Kagome hurried back to Kaede's hut. Inuyasha had been further from the hut than they, but he had smelled the food being brought in and had rushed to get there first. As Maina entered the hut, she saw Inuyasha leaning against the wall, scowling, as Kaede hadn't let him touch any of the food, telling him to wait until everyone was seated for dinner. Glancing Sesshoumaru's way, she saw that he had fallen asleep, but this didn't keep Inuyasha from sneaking a wary peek at him every few seconds out of the corners of his eyes. Kaede was currently arranging cushions on the floor for them all to sit on and deciding how to lay out the meal while Sango went back and forth between the hut and the separate kitchen building, toting the dishes with her two by two. Miroku came sauntering in behind Sango as she brought in the vegetable dishes, casually leaning against the wall opposite Inuyasha, near the doorway.

"Sango, do you want some help with that?" Kagome asked her.

"No, these are the last of them," Sango replied, sighing as she deposited the dishes in Kaede's hands. As she plopped down on one of the floor cushions, Kirara, in her kitten form, came bouncing in from the other room and promptly took her seat on Sango's lap. The others followed suit, and soon they were all seated in a circle, Kaede's back to the rear wall, Miroku on her right and Inuyasha on her left. Sango sat beside Miroku, and Kagome, with Shippo sitting just in front of her, sat beside Inuyasha. Maina sat between the two human women. The little dining arrangement was off to one side of the room's central fire pit, with Sesshoumaru's bed on the other side of it. They filled their plates silently for a minute or two before Miroku decided to speak.

"Lady Maina, it has been a long and.. rather strange day for all of us. I believe we've each introduced ourselves to you since your arrival here, but you haven't yet given us a proper introduction. All we know of you is your name and that you are a goddess."

"Why, you're right, houshi-sama, how rude of me!" Maina replied. She could feel the eyes of all around her - the events of the day had been out-of-the-ordinary, after all. They had been waiting ever since the battle ended to hear her story, she realized. "I suppose, with all that's happened, I simply forgot. I'll just start with the basics.

"I am what is known as a protector goddess. Unlike most gods, I am not of a specific element or animal, but of a place. Protector gods, well, protect places. I myself protect a vast forest at the border between the Southern lands and the Western. You can imagine what a chore I've had defending that land, violent as the youkai of the Southern lands are. That's why, for all the centuries that I have lived, I have studied and trained in the art of making barriers - you saw a demonstration in the battle this afternoon. As a protector god, I have some natural power over spiritual barriers, but it took much training to learn to manipulate the barriers I create. I use barriers much in the way a blacksmith uses metal, in that I can shape them into virtually anything I wish. During the battle with Naraku, I used my powers to create solid barriers in sharp, jagged shapes that could serve as weapons."

"Those things that looked like pieces of glass..," Miroku mused aloud.

"Yes. I can make most anything that way, from weapons to.. to vessels for transporting water," she said with a slight smile. "The barrier I use to protect my forest is my latest accomplishment, which I mastered just over fifty years ago. It is a barrier that allows anyone to enter or leave, but prevents everything and everyone within it from being harmed in any way."

"What? How is such a thing possible?" Miroku asked.

"Well, it isn't, at least not for a human, no matter how powerful. Remember, I have inborn abilities, and even I have had to work many centuries to attain a barrier such as the one around my forest. It is essentially a highly efficient protective barrier. It does not hinder those protected by it in any way, but if something somehow harms them, it will have no effect. Say Inuyasha tries to kill someone while within my forest's barrier. His sword would pass harmlessly through the would-be victim, as if they were merely an illusion."

The group only stared blankly at her. She sighed.

"Remember the way Inuyasha's attack bounced off the barrier I erected during the battle? Rather than it hitting a solid barrier and throwing the attack back at Inuyasha, the forest's barrier would cause the attack to continue on its way as if it had not hit anything at all. Of course, none of the trees or any bystanders would be hurt by the continuing attack, because it would go through them as well. Do you understand?" The group still stared back at her, confused, but nodding anyway. Suddenly, Kaede spoke up.

"I think I have heard of this forest of yours. Long have I heard tell of an enchanted forest in the midst of disputed and violent lands where people could find refuge and travel in safety, but no one ever seemed to agree on just where it was, and thus I thought they were mere stories. They said that it was protected by a holy miko who tended a large shrine in the center of the forest."

"That's the place, Lady Kaede. I've dealt with countless humans, and they tend to describe it as such. The truth is, I only dress as a miko for the humans' sake. I'm not very comfortable with humans coming to me offering prayers and sacrifices and worshipping me - by posing as a miko, I am respected by the humans but also, for the most part, left alone."

"Well, that answers the clothing question, but what about the howling thing?" Sango asked her.

"Ah, that. As I said, I prefer to be left alone by would-be human worshippers, and the same goes for servants. So, instead of having a castle's worth of people waiting on me, I have a large pack of black wolves. Some of them reside within the castle itself, but most serve as patrols around the forest. If something is amiss, they howl to alert the others and myself. They have many distinct howls, and I've come to understand them as well as their bodily communication, though I cannot imitate it. I can perform just one type of howl, the one you heard earlier. It serves as an emergency distress call. In everyday situations, however, I simply speak to them and they understand me."

"But how can a pack of wolves understand speech?" Kagome asked.

"Kouga's wolves are all idiots, and they seem to understand it fine," Inuyasha commented.

"You must be referring to wolf youkai. Mine are not youkai and have no ties to any other wolf packs. They are supernatural creatures, much like myself, a wholly different type of organism from youkai and mortal beasts. But in answer to your question Kagome, I can only guess that they learned to understand words in the same way that I learned to understand the meaning of their howls and body language. You see, the wolves that serve me are immortal, as I am, and over the centuries we have grown to understand each other perfectly. Besides, it was necessary since they cannot imitate my native type of communication any more than I can theirs."

"How did you acquire these immortal wolves of yours?" Miroku inquired.

"That, I honestly do not know. I envy mortals, in some respects, the chief one being that your existence is more definite than my own. You are born to a mother, and you live until your bodily organs cease functioning correctly, for whatever reason, and then you die. Immortals are.. less real."

"What do you mean? You have a physical body - it's not as if you're an apparition," said Sango.

"As mysterious as you humans consider the idea of death and the afterlife, we have many more uncertainties. We do, indeed, have physical bodies like you, but no mother gives birth to us. We simply are - no god has any idea where he came from, only when he came into being. I, for instance, appeared on this earth centuries before your father was born, Inuyasha," Maina said, with a glance his way, "but I have no idea how it happened. Suddenly, I existed. I have no memory of an existence prior to my earthly one, if I existed before that at all. In a second, I simply was - and I look the same now as I did then, an imitation human woman. And the wolves, I don't know if they were already there or if they came into existence at the same time I did, but they were there when I arrived, and they treated me as if they had been my servants for years already. I appeared in the center of what is now my forest, and I have remained there ever since. This is, actually, the farthest I've ever been from it, I believe.."

"This is all fascinating, Lady Maina, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that there's one thing that we've been wondering about all along," Miroku began politely.

"Yes?"

"How do you know Sesshoumaru?" Maina gulped silently, though her rational side knew that it was an innocent question, and that the monk didn't actually suspect anything.

"I've been an ally of the inuyoukai tribe ever since they came to rule over the Western lands. I remained neutral for years, as the youkai who held territory near my forest were simply groups of lesser youkai with bloodlust and greed for land. The inuyoukai were the first civilized tribe ever to take power near my forest, and they managed to take control of countless smaller territories to form what is now the Western lands. I wanted to remain neutral, but the youkai in the south grew increasingly violent in their attempts to seize land, and so I eventually agreed to join the inuyoukai for the sake of protection."

"But wouldn't your barrier have been protection enough?" Kagome asked.

"Back then, my barrier was not as strong as my current one. Also, I had not yet mastered the technique of making my barriers permanent, meaning that all my barriers were connected to me, and I had to actively maintain them. I couldn't very well defend against attacking youkai, because over time my energy would be depleted and I could no longer keep up my barrier. Now, however, I have developed the power to create barriers that are self-maintaining. It takes more energy than you can imagine to do, but it's a one-time thing. You see, once I put a barrier up, I have to send massive amounts of energy into it until the barrier is actually powerful enough to create its own energy and maintain itself."

"You're kidding! Monks and mikos have been trying for centuries to perfect the art of creating barriers, but I've never heard of anyone being able to put up a permanent one unless they had some kind of protecting spirit to strengthen it!" Miroku exclaimed.

"I told you, it's taken me many human lifetimes to do it, and I did not have to impart my knowledge on an apprentice in order to have my work continued. It depresses me the way humans have to pass on their existing knowledge before any progress can be made. I've seen so many live and die that could have done miracles with just a few more years on this earth..," Maina trailed. "But anyway, the alliance was mutually beneficial. The inuyoukai would assist me if any real trouble came, and simply by protecting my forest, as I always had, I was simultaneously protecting one of their most troublesome borders."

By this time, nearly all of the food had been eaten. Maina had only eaten a little, usually when she got a break from explaining by way of someone asking a question, but she did not need to eat. She only ate for the sheer pleasure of tasting food. In essence, though, this meant she could not eat very much before she felt full. The others, by comparison, had gotten much food in their stomachs during Maina's little speech, and were quite full themselves.

Kagome, spotting three rice balls remaining on the center tray, and knowing that the goddess hadn't eaten much, decided to give her a chance at them before one of the others decided they had a bit of space left in their stomachs.

"Won't you have a sweet rice ball?" she asked Maina cheerily. "They're really good, I've already eaten two!" Maina just laughed.

"I'm sure they're wonderful, Kagome, but my poor stomach is already about to burst!"

* * *

AN: Ugh, I hate explanation chapters. I really do. But I already had all this mythological stuff worked out in my head and - well, I couldn't really work it into the story bit by bit. So here it is in its near-entirity, because there were only one or two things that I could use later on for dramatic effect.. Le sigh. The thing I really hate about these explanations is that I've already got the explaination in my head, the full one, and when I write it, I have to pause to expand on things and such... And I'm always leaving something out. I just know I must have left something out... And later on something will happen and you'll all go "wtf!" because I forgot to mention it here. Ugh. _(pets my Sesshie muse to work off the frustration with this evil chapter)_

_Will you quit doing that? I'm no pet.._

Too bad. You're fluffy, and the cat isn't in the room.

_It's enough you've made me an invalid, do you really have to degrade me further?_

...Yes.


	7. Memories and Bandages

AN: Sheesh, how long has it been since I last posted a chapter? Damn good thing I'm motivated by a desire to write this thing rather than a need for attention and reviews, because I'm getting squat in that respect. I know some people at least read the first couple of chapters... Tell me people, has it gotten so boring that you've given up already? I'm just now getting around to the good stuff too... damn my wordy nature. But you know what? I feel the need to post this anyway. So there.

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Chapter Seven - Memories and Bandages

"Lord Sesshoumaru! Lord Sesshoumaru!"

The inuyoukai turned gracefully in mid-step to see an out-of breath Ryokan running towards him.

"I've been looking all over for you!" the bulky, wide-eyed creature exclaimed as he came to a stop before the slender youkai prince.

"Has something happened?" Sesshoumaru asked impassively, a slightly irritated look crossing his features.

"Lord Inutaishou, he has gone off to fight the dragon, the one that has been threatening the lands.."

"Alone?"

"Yes, Lord, alone.."

"You cowardly ingrate, why aren't you fighting with him!" the smaller youkai boomed, his eyes suddenly turning dangerously red.

"But that's why I came looking for you, so that you could help him!" the great wolf pleaded, fear apparent in his large eyes. "I knew that only you were strong enough.."

Growling none too subtly, Sesshoumaru concentrated his youki to form a cloud around his feet. He took to the sky in an instant, leaving his father's vassal staring helplessly up at him from the ground below.

He needed no directions to find his father - not only could he smell blood, but he could also see the clouding dust and thrown rocks in the distance, which could only have been disturbed so by the shock waves of an intense battle.

After a mere minute of speedy flying, Sesshoumaru came upon a narrow canyon, the source of the dust and rocks he'd seen. But by this time, the dust had already settled, and all was suspiciously quiet. He quickly scanned the gorge and was relieved to see Ryuukotsusei, the dragon Ryokan had referred to, pinned by one of his father's claws to the rock wall, his body unmoving. It must have been a difficult battle if Inutaishou had needed to transform in order to defeat him, but where was he now? The giant inu was not the most inconspicuous of creatures, after all…

Suddenly, Sesshoumaru's eyes caught onto a patch of white lying near an outcropping of rock. He immediately landed beside it. It was his father's fur - the luxurious white fur of his inu form.

And it had been ripped right off of him.

The massive strip of hide hung from a jagged boulder and stretched across the ground, the bloody skin darkening the dirt beneath it. It was long enough that it might have covered the entire length of the great inu's back. Sesshoumaru had been told of the dragon's power, but never had he thought that any creature was strong enough to injure the great Inutaishou. The dragon, pinned by a claw not one hundred yards away, had torn his very skin off.

"Sesshou.. maru.." The young inuyoukai spun towards the considerably weakened but recognizable voice of his father to catch a ghastly sight. He was huddled in the shelter of a shallow cave in his humanoid form, and he was covered in blood. With his right hand he clutched the huge gash in his stomach, out of which the majority of the blood flowed. Sesshoumaru rushed to Inutaishou's side.

"Father, you are injured. You should not have fought alone," he stated, with all his might keeping perfect control over his emotionless voice.

"Yes, I know, I'm too rash. Miharu was always telling me that.." he said, squeezing shut his eyes and wincing in pain as he spoke. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the reference, but now was not the time, and he knew it. The scent of his father's blood was everywhere - he had lost far too much…

"Father, we must get you medical attention.."

"Forgive me, my son," Inutaishou interrupted.

"Don't waste your strength talking."

"It's too late, can't you see that? Let an old man repent before he dies!" he shouted, clutching his wound more tightly. Sesshoumaru obediently fell silent.

"I know that I've wronged you, my son. I should have been there.. When the panthers attacked.." Sesshoumaru's eyes widened marginally. Was he actually apologizing? Was he admitting his guilt, after all this time?

"I know that you resent me for it," the taiyoukai said softly, his gaze never wavering from the stone floor.

"No, Father.."

"Yes, you do. You may still respect me, but I see it, that underlying anger, that.. That _hatred_.."

"I do not hate you.."

"Do not interrupt me, Sesshoumaru. You'll have plenty of people listening to your every word during your reign..," Inutaishou trailed off for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut again, as his pain seemed to increase. Sesshoumaru knelt down to his level when he began to cough, and reached out to support him, but Inutaishou batted him away with his free hand.

"I told you already, I'm dying. It's of no use." He grew silent for a moment, and Sesshoumaru was unsure if he was succumbing to death or simply collecting his thoughts.

"There's just one more thing.."

"Yes?"

"I know that you blame me, and you have every right to, but.. If nothing else, you must spare Inuyasha any blame. He is only a child.." Inutaishou began to cough again, this time with blood coming up. And yet, he took his eyes off the ground. Gold met gold as the old inuyoukai looked into his son's face, so similar to his own, and yet so much like his mother's..

"Sesshoumaru.."

"Yes, Father?" he replied quietly.

"Won't you have a sweet rice ball?" Sesshoumaru blinked stupidly at him. Had he imagined it, or had his voice gone up several octaves? "They're really good, I've already eaten two!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes fluttered open, and he found himself staring up at the straw ceiling of the old miko's hut, the lights of the fire in the center of the room dancing across it.

"I'm sure they're wonderful, Kagome, but my poor stomach is already about to burst!" he heard Maina say, laughing good-heartedly. Sesshoumaru propped himself up a bit with his elbow and struggled to raise himself further, but his abdomen screamed its disapproval as he inadvertently bent it. He winced and let out an involuntary and uncharacteristic grunt.

"Sesshoumaru!" Maina gasped, the smile disappearing from her face. She rose from her cushion on the other side of the fire pit and hurried over to his bed.

"You know you shouldn't be moving around in your condition," she coaxed quietly. He put on his straightest face for her.

"I am sick of lying down," he said simply, fighting the urge to clench his teeth, as his wound still was paining him. Maina frowned, but reached out for him, supporting his bare torso and thereby guiding him into a comfortable upright position.

"Ye should eat something, Sesshoumaru," Kaede said from across the room.

"I do not eat human food," he stated coldly.

"It is not a matter of opinion. Ye need food to help your body heal." Sesshoumaru scowled at her.

"How about some rice at least?" Maina suggested.

"I do not want anything to eat," he replied apathetically.

"You are _going _to eat something. Either tell me what you prefer, or I'll choose for you," Maina snapped. Sesshoumaru gave her an icy glare.

"Fine then. You're eating a bowl of rice and some of the fish that Sango prepared." Maina stood and walked briskly toward the others, picking up a bowl and filling it with rice and fish. Grabbing some unused chopsticks, she returned to Sesshoumaru's bedside.

"Eat," she ordered, shoving the chopsticks into his hand. He made no move to use them. Her brow furrowed in response.

"It's enough that I have to hold the bowl for you, would you like me to hand-feed you as well?" she scoffed. Inuyasha laughed from across the room, prompting Sesshoumaru to turn his death glare on him.

"Just what are you laughing at, hanyou? I've seen you in worse condition after battling Naraku - I myself have put you in worse condition than this."

"I'm not laughing because you're wounded, baka. I'm laughing because _you're_ finally the one being ordered around," Inuyasha sneered. "So how's it feel to be on the receiving side of it for once, eh, your highness?"

Sesshoumaru moved to stand, but Maina grasped his arm forcefully and held him in place. Inuyasha only laughed even more.

"Shut up, Inuyasha, or you'll have _me_ to deal with. I believe you've seen my powers in action, have you not?" Maina said sternly. Inuyasha's eyes widened briefly, and he obediently quieted. Sesshoumaru smirked at his half-brother before turning back to the bowl that Maina held before him. With an inaudible sigh and a slight roll of his golden eyes, he began to pick at the food with the chopsticks.

* * *

"Keep your hands off me, old woman," Sesshoumaru growled. Kaede just sighed.

"It was much easier to bandage ye when ye were unconscious," she muttered, gently peeling off the long bandage strip that was wrapped around his midsection. Sesshoumaru maintained a low growl, but took no action.

That is, until Kaede tried to apply some of the stinging antiseptic liquid from Kagome's time.

Sesshoumaru snarled and sent his clawed hand flying toward the miko, but Maina grabbed his wrist in midair a mere second away from its target.

"What do you think you're doing? I _know_ you were raised to have better manners, Sesshoumaru," Maina said, nearly snarling herself as she spoke. He continued to glare at the miko, but made no further moves to kill her. Maina sighed. "I would prefer if you didn't require unconsciousness in order to have your bandages changed.."

"I could always knock him out for ya," offered Inuyasha, who stood by, watching his brother's amusedly demeaning ordeal. He clenched his fist for emphasis. Sesshoumaru turned his glare on Inuyasha, but was cut off before he could give his comeback.

"Thank you, Inuyasha, but I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself," Maina said with a smile. "And after all the crap I've put up with from him today, I would actually _prefer_ to knock him out personally." Inuyasha grinned. The goddess might have been associated with Sesshoumaru, but her personality, fortunately, was nothing like his. He was actually starting to like her.

"Lady Kaede, perhaps you could teach me how to do this," Maina said seriously. "I believe he would.. Tolerate the procedure more readily if I did it."

"Oh?" Kaede replied simply. She didn't want to say anything, but she had indeed noticed that Sesshoumaru, who seemed to hate having anyone touch him, did not protest Maina's touch at all. He would tense up, however subtly, when Kaede touched him as she cleaned the wound, but if Maina touched him, he appeared to be completely unfazed, even _comfortable_, with it.

"He doesn't exactly like humans," Maina explained.

"Aye, that is a wise idea," Kaede said, smiling the slightest bit. She upheld the offensive liquid that had provoked the youkai's anger. "The liquid in this bottle came from Kagome's country. It's called antiseptic. Ye use this to clean the wound out - just wad up a piece of cloth, like this," she told the goddess, demonstrating, "and wet one side of it. All ye have to do is sponge the wound with it before you wrap the new bandage around it. But it does sting a great deal, so this can take longer than ye might think."

"So that's why you lashed out at her like that, because the an-tye-sehp-tic stung?" she asked Sesshoumaru accusingly. He simply 'hmmph'-ed and turned to face the far wall. Inuyasha smirked - the great taiyoukai was being disgraced more and more every minute, it seemed..

Maina took the prepared cloth from Kaede and tentatively began to dab at Sesshoumaru's stomach wound. The gash was still fairly wide, but she could see that it had begun to heal. Faint stripes were visible around the wound, where torn flesh had come back together, but in the center it was still open, still bloody. She could feel him tense up every now and then, but it was obvious he had taken her accusation to heart. Now he didn't dare show that the antiseptic was causing him any pain, and as she continued he stopped wincing altogether - she assumed he was forcing himself not to. But she could feel his eyes on her. Her heart tugged at her, like a child tugging on her mother's dress. She wanted to look back at him, ask him if she were causing him pain, but she ignored the notion. It was an irrational desire. Besides, his pride had been injured enough already.

Sesshoumaru watched her as she gingerly cleaned the wound. She gazed into it the entire time, never lifting her head nor her eyes, as if she were avoiding having to look anywhere else. He dismissed the idea - she was simply concentrating. She was, after all, a novice at treating wounds, and his was especially serious. Of course she would be overly careful and diligent this first time.

Kaede remained just as silent as the goddess and the taiyoukai were, but her eyes, unlike theirs, moved about. She watched Maina's hands for the most part, supervising her work, but she could not help glancing up at Sesshoumaru. He was as stone-faced as ever, though she noted a slight tensing of his muscles now and then, and he was watching the goddess intently. He uttered not one complaint, his face never showed pain nor anger. Just seconds before he'd been snarling and threatening at the touch of the stinging antiseptic, but now he was completely docile. Kaede smiled internally. The taiyoukai had his pride, yes, but she'd seen such things before. This was more than a matter of pride, of masking pain. The way he looked at her.. It was of course very subtle, as everything was where Sesshoumaru was concerned, but she recognized that look.

Inuyasha, too, stood silently watching. Even he had noticed the drastic change in Sesshoumaru's manner. Could it be this goddess held some sort of spell over him? But, she had said that she was a long-time ally of the inuyoukai tribe - could it simply be that he respected her? He'd never seen Sesshoumaru show respect for anyone, save their father, so he couldn't really tell for sure. Whatever it was, though, she certainly held a lot of influence over him.

* * *

"So all of ye are spending the night here as well?"

"Yes, Lady Kaede, I believe it's our best option," Miroku stated rationally. "We don't know where Naraku went, and his scent has disappeared again, according to Inuyasha. But the incident earlier today seems to have been targeted at Sesshoumaru, not Inuyasha, so for now, he's really the only lead we have."

"Besides," Kagome added, "Inuyasha isn't _about _to leave the village unprotected with Sesshoumaru here."

"If Naraku knows that Sesshoumaru is still alive, he may well come after him in his weakened state. We should stay nearby until he is healed, regardless of how dangerous and unpleasant he is," Sango remarked.

"Lady Maina may be able to give more insight into this ordeal," Kaede pondered. "Ye said that Naraku had captured and bound her, correct?"

"Yes," Miroku answered.

"Do ye know for sure that she was taken to lure Sesshoumaru into a trap? Could Naraku not have targeted them both?"

"Lady Maina herself is unsure about Naraku's intentions, but she said that the most plausible explanation was that he wanted to get to Sesshoumaru," Miroku said.

"Aye, I remember her saying something of the sort shortly after your arrival." Kaede quieted for a moment, thinking. "I suppose we should just decide on the sleeping arrangements for now. We can try to figure all this out in the morning."

"Wonderful," said Maina, coming up from behind the little gathering. She grinned pleasantly. "I've almost fallen asleep sitting up at least three times since dinner."

"That's no surprise. Sesshoumaru's boring as it is - he must be twice as boring when he's passed out like that," Inuyasha commented, jerking a thumb at his brother's sleeping form. Maina rolled her eyes.

"He might not exactly be the life of the party around here, but he does _not_ bore me," she said dryly. "And he only fell asleep a few minutes ago, for your information."

"It's like he's trying to make up for all the sleep he's avoided in his lifetime in just one day," Inuyasha sneered.

"He needs to rest so that his body can heal itself more efficiently, Inuyasha," Maina retorted. If she had indeed been a wolf youkai, as they'd suspected earlier that day, he imagined she would be growling as she spoke.

"Inuyasha, could you stop insulting your brother for a minute? I don't like him any more than you do, but even I'm getting tired of this," Kagome said with a yawn.

"Fine, fine..," Inuyasha muttered. Sango let out an audible sigh.

"Can we just go to bed now?"

* * *

AN: Ah, I had much fun with this chapter. I'm really getting behind on posting though, because I just realized in editing this for that this is the first dream sequence I wrote for this story... And I've been writing/storyboarding dream sequences for quite a while. Heh. Laziness and immense school stress are not a good combo when you're trying to work out the complications of a plot. Oh well._ (hugs the chapter) _Tons of editing went into this baby, and what can I say, I'm pretty proud of it, which is a lot considering how critical I am of myself.

And if in fact there is even a single person reading this thing, would you mind reviewing? I really really hate to type that at the end of every chapter but do I have much of a choice? Look at this thing, there are four. Four! And I recieved the fourth after posting the third chapter, I think. It really sucks. I really want to see this story through, but it's difficult to do with school going on, with all the homework, stress, and sleep deprivation that comes with it, especcially when no one's even reading it. Some extrinsic motivation might be nice..


	8. Persistant Images and Irrational Fears

AN: Whee... it's been awhile since I've even looked at this thing.. Not that I have any readers deserving of an update, but I'm going to update anyway. In fact, since I'm out of school now, I'm gonna catch up on the updates. Up until now I've been several chapters ahead of my updates, but I think I'm just going to finish editing and post all the chapters I have now, or at least limit myself to staying just one chapter behind my updates instead of.. um.. five. Heh. Good thing I'm (for the most part, anyway) intrinsically motivated to continue this thing, despite the utter lack of reviews. Sigh.

* * *

Chapter Eight - Persistant Images and Irrational Fears

"No.. It.. It just can't be..," she choked. But he just looked at her, his youthful face marred by sorrows no one so young should have to experience.. Hell, no one as old as she should have to either, but it was true. And she could see in his sad bloodshot eyes that he hadn't told her the half of it. She plopped down on the floor of the veranda, as her legs had begun to wobble beneath her.

"Miharu.. Mai..," she pronounced in lingering disbelief. She stared at the dirt, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Lady Maina.."

"Damn it!" she suddenly shrieked, half yelling, half wailing. She pounded a fist on the wood floor, making even the sturdy support beams quiver. "How could.. How the _hell_ could this have happened? How could they have defeated the entire.."

"Lady Maina," he began again. "It was no battle. There was no _defeat_. There was a massacre…"

"Sesshoumaru?" She looked up pitifully at him. He'd never seen her in such a state - she was always so strong, so confident, so unshakable… so like Miharu.

"The men were gone. There was only me, a couple of elders, and.. the women and children..," he trailed, now staring off into the distance. "They were out hunting. They waited until they'd gotten far enough away that they couldn't return in time to defend the dens."

"No, that's.. that's not like him, leaving the dens defenseless like that.."

"It wasn't his decision. He was already gone," Sesshoumaru said, his voice becoming cold, bitter.

"Gone where?"

"He left last week, claiming that he was going to take care of some troublesome youkai." He turned to look her in the eye. Her eyes widened as she came to the same conclusion he had.

"He went to see one of those human women, didn't he?" she asked softly.

"He wouldn't leave his mate and children alone for a _week_ just to fight youkai," he replied, his voice ragged. The tears that had been welling up in Maina's eyes began to fall.

"Damn him," she uttered at barely a whisper, drawing up her knees to her chest. She propped her crossed arms on them and buried her face, using all her strength to keep her lamentation silent. He was in enough pain already - he didn't need the guilt of having made her cry with his news. Sesshoumaru politely cleared his throat.

"Lady Maina, will you allow me to stay here for a day or two?" She looked up, fighting back her tears once again, though her face was already stained by them.

"Sesshoumaru, you have to tell your father.."

"One of the elders survived - _he _can tell my father. I do not wish to see him."

"But.. Surely he will fear that you were killed as well if you aren't there.." The youkai prince narrowed his eyes with all the bitterness of an old man.

"So be it. Let him believe I am dead," he said, the coldness in his voice frightening her. "Why should he care anyway? He can always father another heir with one of those human whores of his. He seems to prefer them to his youkai family, after all.."

"I know you're angry. I'm angry too," she said in a forcedly calm voice, "but you don't really _mean_ that.."

"It doesn't matter." He looked her in the eyes. "I won't even be able to look at his face." The bitterness in his voice was melting away into sorrow. He was completely serious. "If I saw him right now, I think I might kill him." She simply nodded.

"You can stay as long as you need to, Sesshoumaru."

"Thank you, Lady Maina," he said properly, bowing.

"Ku ku ku.. Are you crying, goddess?" boomed a sinister voice. Her eyes grew wide, and she scanned the thick trees, but could see nothing there. Why hadn't her wolves alerted her? She shot up onto her feet in an instant, gathering power in her hands and readying for the attack. Sesshoumaru turned just as quickly towards the dense woods behind him, two swords suddenly appearing at his side as his father's pelt materialized over his right shoulder.

"Naraku..," he growled, baring his fangs and readying his poison claws as he, too, searched the trees.

"I'm afraid you're too slow," the disembodied voice said. Out of nowhere, a huge tentacle, looking much like the tree trunks it had no doubt been hidden in, flew through the air, aiming straight for Sesshoumaru. Before he could make a move, before Maina could utter any sort of cry, it had stabbed him through and left him lying in a limp pile on the forest floor, motionless save for the blood - the blood that never stopped coming, the blood that flowed continuously from the wound. There was just so _much_ of it..

She felt a wetness on her chest and stomach fast spreading to her arms and legs. She looked down, horrified, at the blood that now covered the entire front side of her body, soaking through her clothes, soaking into her skin, soaking into her very soul…

Maina let out a quick gasp as her eyes snapped open. Her speeding heartbeat resounded in her ears, and she was sure someone would hear it in the dark, silent room. She breathed just as rapidly, her mouth hanging open. She just couldn't seem to get enough air through her nose, she needed to swallow it, gulp it down, feel it enter her lungs in gusts.. Staring into the darkness, she tried to collect her wits, even as her body was in a state of panic.

'_A dream, that's all, just a dream..,' _she told herself. _'He's fine, he's lying right on the other side of that wall there, sleeping. He's alive..' _She took a deep breath to calm herself as she tried to reason the fears away, but it wasn't working. She tried to push everything from her mind and go back to sleep, but those images of death, of blood, wouldn't let her be. It was an irrational desire, she knew, but she needed to see him, _prove_ to herself that he really was okay..

Slowly, silently, she shed her blanket and rose from her bedding on the floor. She padded barefoot across the wooden floorboards, wary of the creaks that might wake up one of the others in the room. Upon leaving Kaede's small bedroom, where the women all were sleeping, she stood for a moment in the short hallway between it and the even smaller storeroom. Stepping up to the very edge of the hall, she scanned the dark main room where Sesshoumaru's bed was - and also where Inuyasha and Miroku were spending the night. She would have to be extra careful so as not to let Inuyasha's sharp hearing detect her. She was not worried about waking Sesshoumaru, as his healing sleep was a deep one.

She walked slowly into the room, pausing after each step and holding her breath, listening for any signs that Inuyasha had awoken. It took her a full minute to reach Sesshoumaru's bedside, as she had to go around the fire pit, which was left burning low for the night to keep the hut warm. She kneeled beside his sleeping form, watching the firelight dance across his peaceful face, watching as its most minute features were alternately illuminated and thrown into shadow. His chest, only partially covered by his open haori, rose and fell with the slow, steady breathing of sleep. He was half-covered by a thin blanket, leaving only the upper portion of his bandages exposed. They were an unmarred white.

'_You see? You were worried over nothing,' _she told herself. _'He's alive, and the wound isn't bleeding. He's fine…' _

She sighed a little, pondering, _'Why am I so troubled by his condition? I care about him, of course - I've cared for all the lovers I've had over the centuries…'_

She lightly traced the contours of his face with her right index finger. He was not like her previous lovers, though, she decided. She had lusted before, had been enamored before, had felt all kinds of emotions in varying degrees for her previous lovers, but he elicited feelings in her that none of the others had. Seeing the way he looked at her bound and bloody form, seeing him die, and seeing him struggle, bleeding and barely able to walk, to escape the hands of death - the events of the day, they _scared_ her. And the way she felt thinking back on them frightened her as well.

'_Why won't those images leave my mind? It's not as if I haven't seen death before - I've seen it countless times over. I've seen strangers die, acquaintances, friends, lovers.. It's never bothered me this much before.. Perhaps it's simply because I've known him so long. The lovers before him.. Those affairs lasted only a couple of years at most, this one.. It's been at least 60, if not 70 years now.. But it's been off and on, with him roaming his lands all the time and looking for that sword..'_

And then, there were other things that, as she thought about them, had an effect similar to that of her memories of the battle, though in a more positive way. When he had held her that morning - gods, was it only that morning? - and watched the sunrise with her, and when he'd arrived at her forest, when he'd smiled at her that way.. Thinking back, she couldn't remember ever seeing such an expression on his face, except perhaps when he was a child. Now that her shock and surprise had subsided, however, the memory made her feel warm inside - the sort of warmth young girls felt with their first loves, but even more intense, and for her, simply debilitating. She shouldn't feel that way, she knew better. She knew their situation would not allow for such things, she had _always_ known that.

But it didn't make those unwelcome feelings go away.

* * *

_eeeer-ka…. eeeer-ka…_

Inuyasha snapped open his eyes as the slow creaking of floorboards got louder and louder. He did not move, his eyes alone shifting. Someone was walking down the short hallway into the room. He closed his eyes as he heard the footsteps come near, cautiously peeking out from beneath his eyelids, his lashes hiding what tiny portion of his eyes would have been visible. A blurry figure was going to the other side of the room.

A figure in _white_ was going to the other side of the room..

'_Sesshoumaru..'_ His instincts told him to jump up right away and draw his sword, but he decided it better to maintain his guise of sleep for now and watch to see what he did. Sesshoumaru stopped beside the bed he'd been lying in all day and kneeled down. Had he gotten up sometime during the night and was just now returning to bed?

Suddenly, a streak of black cut through the unbroken white of the kneeling figure. Inuyasha looked more closely, his eyes opening a bit wider. It was hair, hair at least as long as his brother's, but a dark color, that had fallen over the being's shoulder. The fire flared up for a brief moment, illuminating the figure in white as well as the bed, where Sesshoumaru could be seen, still sleeping, his head resting on that fluffy pelt of his. It was Maina who had entered the room, wearing the white sleeping kimono that Kaede had provided for her. Her face was cast in deep shadows, which, combined with the white clothing and contrasting dark hair, made her appearance utterly ethereal. Her hair shimmered like water as the leaping light of the fire turned the strands it fell upon an earthy shade of red.

Inuyasha watched her curiously for a few minutes, assuming she would try to wake Sesshoumaru, as she'd obviously come to see him. But she did nothing. She simply watched him, and at one point idly stroked his face, but made no move to wake him. He'd thought ever since the battle that afternoon that there was something going on that she wasn't telling them - she was friendly toward Sesshoumaru, which he had decided to ignore. His friends and himself were, after all, strangers to her, whereas his brother was her long-time ally - on that level, it made sense. It was Sesshoumaru's manner that had really sparked his curiosity - she alone seemed immune to his temper and violence. She spoke to him without his title, and he didn't seem to mind in the least. She alone could touch him without him threatening or even tensing up; granted, Inuyasha knew full well that he hated humans, but he was fairly sure that Sesshoumaru did not like to be touched at all. He was surprised the arrogant taiyoukai hadn't tried to kill any of his friends already for helping him, for damaging his pride. He wasn't exactly one to admit that he needed anyone else's help..

But no, there was just _no_ way that heartless bastard could actually care about someone else. Perhaps he'd tricked her somehow, making her think he was a good person, or at least a pity case, so that he could take advantage of her. Nevertheless, it was obvious, even to Inuyasha, that _she_ cared about _him_. One day, he knew, Sesshoumaru would show his true self and break her heart. He also knew that none of his friends would speak bluntly with her about it.

Great. So he had to be the bad guy once again..

Inuyasha cleared his throat, stealing her attention with the soft sound that was as thunder in the oppressive silence. Maina stared wide-eyed in his direction. He looked back, no longer bothering to pretend he was asleep. Ever softly, the goddess rose to her feet and padded toward him.

* * *

AN: Muaha. Cliffieness. This chapter took a while.. and it still annoys me. This one and the next one, they were re-thought, re-storyboarded.. like a million times. Really. And I still think they are seriously lacking. _(cries)_

_What in the world are you crying about?_

Oh, my muse, you've returned!

_Yes, to edit this sad little thing. I'm afraid I cannot save it, though._

Oh, come on, Sesshie, you know your own character better than anyone! Can't you fix it?

_...Not if you insist on calling me that._

Well, I guess it's never going to get any better than it already is. How unfortunate.

_...What is that supposed to mean?_

It means I'm hopelessly attached to your nickname, and that's all there is to it. _(pets)_

_... (fwack)_

Ow!

_Haven't I told you before not to pet me?_


	9. Battles, Arguments, and Lechery

AN: This one's longer than ch. 8.. Why is it the more I try to edit and revise these things, the shorter they seem to be? Oh well. I'm shaky on this chapter too.. naturally. It starts off as the conclusion to the scene from the last chapter, which bugs me to no end, so yeah. Grr.

* * *

Chapter Nine - Battles, Arguments, and... Lechery?

"Eh-ehem."

Maina froze in place. Her eyes, now the size of saucers, looked up to see Inuyasha, still sitting in the same position, but awake and looking back at her. Her heartbeat quickened, but she refused to allow him to see her embarrassment, for she knew it would give her away. Sesshoumaru had always wanted their relationship to be a secret - that's why she'd had a private hut built for them, after all. She rose, quietly and coolly, and strode towards Inuyasha. She stopped before him, glancing over the at the monk to see if he had woken as well, but he still seemed to be asleep. She sat a foot or so before Inuyasha, keeping her head up in an aristocratic manner, perfectly imitating Sesshoumaru's characteristic look.

"I apologize, Inuyasha, I did not mean to wake you," she said, her voice just above a whisper.

"Don't bother apologizing, I was only half-sleeping anyway," he countered. "I have to watch out for _him_,ya know." Maina narrowed her eyes at him.

"He's not just going to jump up in the middle of the night and kill someone."

"I'm not worried about him killing someone. I'm worried about him killing _everyone_," he retorted.

"Sesshoumaru wouldn't do a thing like that. He's an honorable youkai; he would not attack the village that had generously taken him in to heal."

"Keh. You don't know him like I do," he muttered.

"I'm the only person who _knows_ him at all!" she whispered harshly. Inuyasha quieted for a moment, just staring dumbly at her. _'Gods, she's touchy..' _He shook his head slightly.

"Whatever. If he's so damned _honorable_, how come he tries to kill his only brother every chance he gets? He's just an arrogant bastard who can't accept that a hanyou with tainted blood might be worth anything..," he ranted quietly, crossing his arms defiantly across his chest. Maina frowned almost sadly.

"It's not like that..," she said, almost inaudibly, even to his ears. Inuyasha sighed.

"Look, it's plain to see that you care about the guy, though I can't imagine _why_," he began, a bit more gently, "and I hate to be the one to have to say this, but you're wasting your time on him. You're just begging to have your heart broken."

"And just what do _you_ know about it? What gives you the right to preach to me?" she replied defensively.

"I know your situation better than you think," he said softly. She gave him a questioning look, but he returned to his cynical tone without further explanation. "Sesshoumaru's a heartless, selfish youkai who doesn't think twice about killing civilians, family, or anyone else. He will never return your feelings, no matter how much you try to get him to warm up to you. He's incapable of love, and that's all there is to it."

"How dare you say such a thing, you ignorant hanyou! I would hit you right now if I didn't think the sound would wake everyone up," she snarled.

"Why the hell are you defending him? You can't _deny_ that he's cold and arrogant and.."

"On the outside, yes, but _I_ know him better than that. I've known him since he was _born_. His father, _your_ father, was a good friend of mine, and Miharu, his mother, she was like a sister to me! She brought him and Mai to visit my forest all the time; I practically watched him grow up! And _you_ presume to know better than me?" Inuyasha stared at the goddess, dumbfounded and, for once, speechless. Did she really know all about his family? About his father? Inuyasha himself knew nothing save what Totosai and Myouga had told him, which, all-in-all, wasn't much. But Maina, she could probably tell him everything..

"Good_night_, Inuyasha," she said curtly. "I only came to check on Sesshoumaru's condition, and I've done that, so I'm returning to bed now." She rose to her feet gracefully, elegantly, and tossed a wisp of hair over her shoulder. "I suggest you get some sleep as well," she remarked haughtily. She quickly padded into the hallway, leaving Inuyasha alone in the silent darkness.

* * *

"Lady Maina! Are you all right?"

"I'm… fine..," she replied, though her eyes had begun to flutter. She started to sway, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her. The inu warrior gripped her arm to steady her.

"Have you been injured?" he asked with obvious panic.

"No… I'm just… a bit tired..," she murmured. In an instant, another inuyoukai stood before her. She was able to recognize the crescent moon on his forehead and the silver hair pulled back in a high ponytail just before her vision became blurry.

"Inu..taishou..," she whispered. He frowned.

"You've used up too much energy. You must take down some of your barriers," he said sternly. Her reserve strength rushed to her in a wave of anger.

"How can you ask me that? We're outnumbered! I can't leave all of you unprotected, I'd rather die myself!" she cried, struggling against the grip of the warrior at her side.

"If you maintain all of the barriers for much longer, you will deplete your energy and all of them will fall. Divert your energy to keeping up the highest priority barriers. Discard the rest," he said coldly.

"I can't..," she replied limply, already beginning to feel faint again.

"Do it, Lady Maina. Protect Sesshoumaru and my generals. We must stay organized or the panther youkai will overwhelm us!" he yelled, his strong voice becoming ragged. A tear escaping her eye, she nodded in understanding. Finally shaking free of the warrior's supporting grip, she raised her already glowing hands above her. Every inu warrior on the battlefield was bathed in the light of her power for a brief second before it disappeared, leaving only Sesshoumaru, the generals, and Inutaishou protected by it. She lowered her hands.

"It is done," she whispered.

"You left my barrier up," Inutaishou stated.

"You are their leader.."

"I'll protect myself - I command you take it down and put the energy toward the others," he snarled.

"Fine," she replied, a sad smile crossing her tired face. Inutaishou nodded his head just once before rushing into battle again, the warrior standing beside her following. Maina found a sheltered spot on the edge of the field and sat down. She smirked as she watched Inutaishou fearlessly slicing his claws through the panther youkai.

'_He's so gullible,' _she thought. _'I didn't even raise my hands to remove his barrier, and he believed nonetheless that I had..'_

Concentrating all her energy on the inuyoukai still under her protection, she watched with satisfaction the way they mowed down the panthers, invincible to their counterattacks, barking out orders to the lower ranking warriors as they went. There were many panthers left to defeat, but there were also many dead on the ground, and that was enough to bring a true smile to her face.

Suddenly, a pained howl rent her momentary calm away. It took her only seconds to find its source, but long minutes to look away from it. A warrior, in his large inu form, howled in pain as blood gushed from a huge hole in his side. His grey fur was soaked with it, as were the offending panther youkai nearby. He shrank to his humanoid form as Maina looked on in horror, finally falling dead on the battlefield. The inu army had its first casualty of the Great War.

Maina bit into her bottom lip until she tasted blood, tears streaming down her face. She clenched her eyes tightly shut, forcing herself to concentrate on upholding her remaining barriers. She had to protect Inutaishou and Sesshoumaru, above all else, or the lands would fall. She had to protect the generals, or the army would lose organization as well as their upper hand. The rest were foot soldiers, she told herself. They were prepared to die if need be..

She clamped her hands over her ears as another dying inu's cries rang out from the midst of the battle. She could not listen, she could not let herself think about the deaths occurring right in front of her. She couldn't protect all of them - she had to protect only the most vital warriors. Even as more and more members of the already decimated inuyoukai tribe fell dead by the claws of the panthers, she had to hold on to her focus. Even if all but a handful of the inu were left alive, they could not let the panthers win…

* * *

"You baka, you have to eat _something_!"

"This Sesshoumaru does not need food."

Maina blinked sleepily as the echoing argument invaded her dreams.

"Eat it or I'll shove it down your throat!"

"Try it and we shall both be missing an arm."

The images of her dreams momentarily forgotten, chased away by the waking world, she rolled over on her side and pulled her blanket over her head. She should have known it would only be a matter of time before the two brothers started bickering..

"Don't forget how you lost that arm! You should be happy I haven't decided to kill you in your sleep yet!"

"Even in sleep, I doubt that you could kill me."

"Ugh, can't they quarrel a little more quietly?" she groaned, pressing her hands over her ears and closing her eyes tightly.

"You bastard!"

"My parents were mated. _You_ are the bastard." Suddenly, a resounding crash shook the little hut.

"Damnit, what the hell just happened?" she heard Inuyasha say.

"MAINA!" Sesshoumaru called angrily.

'_What the..' _She reluctantly tossed the blanket off and crawled groggily out of her bed, the only one in the room that hadn't been rolled up and put away yet. She briefly wondered why no one had woken her earlier, but shrugged off the thought. She smoothed her hair with one hand as she unsteadily made her way into the main room.

She walked in to see Sesshoumaru sitting up in his bed, a tray of untouched food resting on his lap - and Inuyasha lying flat on the floor next to him.

"What's going on?" she asked with a yawn.

"When exactly did you place a barrier on me, Maina?" Sesshoumaru demanded, forsaking formality as he glared daggers at her. Images of the battlefield rushed back to her, memories of putting up her barriers around Sesshoumaru and the other warriors.. She shook her head, knowing these were just the bumbling thoughts of a mind not entirely awake.

"What are you talking about?" she said finally, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Inuyasha attempted to hit me, but his fist went through me, which, as you can see, threw him off balance."

"So that's what that noise was, huh?" she asked with an amused smile at Inuyasha.

"Answer my question," Sesshoumaru commanded in a threatening voice. "When did you put a barrier on me?"

"I don't remember..," she trailed, absentmindedly tapping her lips as she tried to recall more recent memories. Sesshoumaru maintained an impatient stare. "Oh!" she cried suddenly. "I remember now! I put the barrier on you during the battle yesterday!" Sesshoumaru raised a questioning eyebrow.

"It was.. When you were killed," she said, a bit shakily.

"You put a barrier around a corpse?" Inuyasha interjected.

"From what I'd seen of him, I didn't think it would be below Naraku to desecrate a corpse, especially that of his enemy," she explained. "I guess I forgot about it.. I wasn't exactly expecting you to come back to life, after all.." Sesshoumaru's face softened minutely.

"This Sesshoumaru does not need protection," he stated, regaining his high tone. "Remove it." She nodded as waves of deja vu passed through her. Kneeling next to him, she placed her hands on his shoulders. For a moment, his entire body glowed a soft blue, but then the light began to collect in her hands and was completely gone in just a few seconds' time. She casually removed her hands.

"There," she said matter-of-factly. Sesshoumaru only nodded in acknowledgement as Inuyasha finally made a move to get off the floor.

"Did Kaede change your bandage this morning?" Maina asked offhandedly.

"She looked at it, but said that it could wait, as it is no longer bleeding a very great deal."

"But it _is_ still bleeding?"

"Only when I move." He moved aside his haori, revealing a moderately bloody part of his bandage.

"Not bad, considering it happened just yesterday," the goddess replied pleasantly. "When did she suggest changing it?"

"Whenever you woke up," he said simply.

"I see. Did you threaten her, or is she still being cautious because of yesterday's little incident?" she asked him accusingly.

"It was more of a growl than a threat," Inuyasha commented.

"I did nothing to her. She simply wished for Maina to do it this time," Sesshoumaru snapped at him. Maina smirked.

"Fine, I'll change the bandage, but after that you have to eat your meal, alright? I'll just go and get the supplies..," she said, rising to her feet and heading for the small storeroom opposite the room she'd slept in. A quick glance around found everything she needed conveniently stored together. She returned to find Inuyasha near the door of the hut, talking quietly to the monk, who had just come in.

"What do you mean you _can't_? You've never passed up an opportunity before, from what I've seen. And just think how powerful they'd be if she agreed..," Inuyasha was saying quietly, a mischievous grin on his face.

"You do have a point," Miroku confessed, a sly half-smile forming as he spoke. Maina decided to ignore them after this, as it was obviously a private conversation. Besides, she had to actively listen to hear it, as she didn't have the keen hearing of an inuyoukai. Casually she kneeled beside Sesshoumaru, slipped the open haori from his shoulders, and began to remove the long bandage strip that was wrapped around his midsection. The taiyoukai held his long hair out of the way for her. Discarding the old bandage, she took a clean rag, wadded it the way Kaede had showed her, and treated one side of it with the antiseptic. She'd almost finished cleaning the wound on his stomach when Miroku came up behind her.

"You're doing a pretty good job for a novice," he began, "and I should know - I've seen more than my fair share of healing treatments since I teamed up with Inuyasha."

"Oh, thank you, houshi-sama, but I'm only cleaning it. It's pretty simple," she replied.

"I'm sure that with some more practice you could become a skilled healer," he continued, sitting next to her. "You've got all the time in the world to learn, after all. I'm surprised you didn't know anything about it already, actually."

"I'm accustomed to preventing wounds, not healing them," she said with a friendly smile.

"Children tend to get hurt a lot - scraping their knees and such in playing.. Do you have any children, Lady Maina?"

"No, houshi-sama, I have no children. You see, I.."

"I know, I know, finding the right partner is a daunting task, now matter how much time you have to do it," Miroku interrupted, "but I'm sure you'd make a wonderful mother." Maina paused in her work and looked at him.

"Thank you, but.."

"Please don't think of me as being too forward, my Lady, but I must ask you something," he said, gazing into her eyes with a sincere kind of sadness.

"What is it?" she asked, blinking naively.

"You see, a curse was placed on my family by Naraku, which created a kazaana in the right hand of every male in our line. Eventually, if Naraku is not defeated, my kazaana will suck me in," he explained, holding out his hand, bound by prayer beads. "I am the last of my line, Lady Maina, so I desperately need an heir to carry on my bloodline if we fail to defeat Naraku."

"Are you.. Asking me to bear you a son?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, my Lady, that is what I am asking," the monk replied solemnly.

"Hou.. Um, Miroku..," she began. To her surprise and Miroku's, she was interrupted by a quiet but menacing growl emanating from Sesshoumaru's throat. Miroku's eyes grew wide and he began to lean away from him.

"If you so much as _touch_ her," he snarled low, "I will rip you apart before that kazaana of yours has any chance to suck you in." Miroku wore a look of pure fear - he knew better than to underestimate Sesshoumaru - and realized then that perhaps he hadn't really given this enough thought. He certainly hadn't expected the taiyoukai to be possessive of the goddess.. Just what kind of 'allies' were they, he wondered?

Unbeknownst to the unfortunate monk, Inuyasha was still standing by the door, stifling a laugh. Apparently his assumptions had been right..

"Will you stop growling at everyone?" she scolded him. Miroku almost gasped aloud - Sesshoumaru was angry, and she was _reprimanding_ him? How fortunate that she was immortal..

"Miroku," she said in a surprisingly amused tone, "I was trying to tell you - I _can't_ bear you any children. Beings like myself do not reproduce the way mortals do. We may have physical bodies like yours, but they do not function in the same way. In fact, I have never heard of a god reproducing at all - as I told you at dinner, we simply come into being on the earthly plane, no parents, no birthing."

"Oh, I see..," Miroku replied, still keeping a wary eye on the taiyoukai, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, but was maintaining his death glare. "B-but please, Lady Maina, I really was only kidding. I ask every woman that, just ask Kagome and Sango!" he said with a nervous laugh. "I really had no intention of.."

"It's okay, I understand," she said with a laugh, "but you really should learn some tact, don't you think?" She pointed to Sesshoumaru with her thumb. "You don't want to make someone like him mad, now do you?"

"Heh, absolutely right, Lady Maina," he said with a forced smile, still glancing warily at the bedridden taiyoukai, who had all of a sudden returned to his usual emotionless expression. "I apologize if I.. Disrespected you, Lord Sesshoumaru..," he said apprehensively.

"You have not disrespected me," he replied coolly. "I was merely watching out for the well-being of my ally, whom _you_ were ignobly attempting to sway with your pity story."

"That's very decent of you, Sesshoumaru, but I think I can dissuade lechers on my own," Maina said with a clever smile. "And besides," she continued, placing a placating hand on his arm, "he _was_ only joking, after all."

"I'll be going now, I think, so that you can return to the bandaging." Miroku hopped up and quickly made his way past the suspiciously satisfied-looking hanyou and out of the hut, still wearing a nervous smile, as he could feel Sesshoumaru's eyes still on him.

He stopped just outside the hut and leaned against the wall. _'What just happened in there? First he's growling and threatening my life, and then he claims to simply be protecting her from smooth-talking lechers?.. He acts as if I were making a pass on his wife or something!'_

_

* * *

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AN: Yay, I love the latter part of this chapter._ (grins stupidly) _I love inopportune Miroku moments, don't you? Not to say I'm exactly thrilled with the way it came out, but compared to some other scenes I've kind of flubbed up, this one, I think, is pretty good. It's amusing, if nothing else.. The dream sequence for this chapter was a bit tough, since I was trying to convey the entire war in a short flashback.. heh. I think that one worked out well, too, though. It's like a blue moon in the world of my writings. But hey, some feedback other than my own self-bashing might be nice. Any takers? Hmm?

_You know these worthless humans never review anything.. even on the rare occasion that it has been well written._

Yeah, tell me about it... Hey!

_Did you not say yourself how rare good writing is for you?_

...I didn't mean it that way, exactly..

_Stop being such a pity case. Would you be happier if I slew those who leave no reviews?_

...Maybe. Try it and see._ (grins)_


	10. Blossoming Friendships, Broken Family

AN: Ah, you can probably tell I'd been concentrating too much on passing a math test myself when I wrote this one.. heh. Oh yes, and did I mention that I hate character limits on chapter titles? _(C_hencewhyIreuploaded_O_allthechapters_U_withtitles_G_inthetext_H)_

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* * *

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Chapter Ten - Blossoming Friendships and Broken Families

'_Let's see.. If the sine of angle A is .3897..And the length of side A is 42.. And side B is 31.. Then angle B has a sine of…'_

"Kagome?"

'_What? No, sine is a number, not a person's name.. Wait, what am I thinking?' _Kagome shook her head and looked up to see her newest acquaintance bent over her, dressed in familiar red and white miko robes, peering at the mess of symbols and numbers that was Kagome's trigonometry notes.

"Oh, good morning, Lady Maina. Or, I suppose, good afternoon," Kagome said with a pleasant smile.

"What can I say, I'm accustomed to sleeping in," she replied with a matching smile. "If I may ask, what are you doing?" the goddess asked, pointing to the papers and books strewn around the school girl.

"Studying. I have a math test in a few days, and was planning to go home soon so I could have some study time, but with Sesshoumaru around, I doubt Inuyasha will let me go - he didn't like the idea when we were doing nothing at all, actually. So I thought I'd get some studying done while I've got a quiet moment.."

"I understand, I think. What's a math test exactly?"

"Never mind, it requires a long explanation.."

"I mean, is it something dangerous?" Maina asked, joining Kagome on the grass. "Is that why Inuyasha doesn't want you to go?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that. He just doesn't like having to stop the search for the jewel shards for a few days while I'm at home, that's all."

"Ah. He isn't exactly a model of patience, I take it?"

"Definitely not," Kagome replied dryly.

"But I'll bet he expects you to be patient towards him, doesn't he?" Kagome laughed at this.

"How'd you guess?"

"He reminds me of Inutaishou - since we first met yesterday, I've felt a kind of familiarity there. He acts so much like him," Maina explained lightly. "He has that same impatient manner, that same rashness, as his father did." Her face suddenly grew more serious. "He never wanted to wait to do anything. If there was a battle to be fought, he'd rush in right away. He didn't care to wait for his allies to join him, he didn't make plans, he simply went in.. Tell me, Kagome, does Inuyasha do that too?"

"All the time. He's even rushed into battles before on the nights he loses his youkai powers, though we tried to hold him back. For a while, we thought that Naraku might have found out when that night is..," Kagome mused. Maina looked at the ground.

"You must try to get him to be more careful. I've seen the way you act together - you have greater influence over him than anyone else, I think," she said quietly.

"Lady Maina?" Kagome said, confusion in her voice.

"It was that recklessness that got Inutaishou killed, Kagome. He rushed into battle with that dragon, Ryuukotsusei, and didn't take any inu warriors or allies with him," Maina raised her head to meet Kagome's eyes. "He fought him alone. He was already dying of blood loss when Sesshoumaru found him.," she said softly.

"Even when Inuyasha does things like that, and tells the rest of us to stay out of it, we don't listen to him. We follow him whether he likes it or not so that we can help him when he needs us," Kagome said as confidently as she could.

"I'm glad," Maina said, her voice just above a whisper.

"Does Sesshoumaru still consider Inuyasha his enemy?"

"They aren't exactly on friendly terms.."

"So why aren't you hostile to Inuyasha?" Maina stared off into space for a moment.

"I understand the way Sesshoumaru feels toward him. I once felt the same way. But.. Resentment has a way of retreating after a while, and you start to think things through more reasonably.." Maina paused. "I suppose, since Sesshoumaru's come in contact with him, and not in the best of situations, from what he's told me, that resentment hasn't yet had a chance to wear off for him. But I never even _saw_ Inuyasha before yesterday, and so after Inutaishou died there was nothing concrete to remind me, to renew that resentment, other than Sesshoumaru himself…" She turned to face Kagome again. "Besides, I should think by now I'm experienced enough to know that one cannot blame the son for the discrepancies of his father. It wasn't Inuyasha's fault that he was born, or _when_ he was born, right?"

"Right," Kagome agreed softly.

"I know none of you are exactly _comfortable_ with Sesshoumaru being here, but I thank you for helping him. He's certainly not the most pleasant of guests, but," Maina said with a sad smile, "he has his reasons for acting like such an ass most of the time." Kagome smiled.

"You know," she began hesitantly, "I think it was pretty obvious yesterday that Naraku wasn't expecting to fight both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru at the same time. He actually looked intimidated by them. I mean, they're both powerful, but neither has quite been able to defeat Naraku. If they worked together, I'll bet Naraku would be no match for them."

"You noticed that too, eh?"

"Yeah," Kagome said, leaning back onto her elbows, her mathematics long forgotten. "I really wish that Inuyasha could make amends with Sesshoumaru somehow - if nothing else, they could forget their differences long enough to fight our mutual enemy and _then_ fight each other," she continued with a little laugh.

"It would be a grand sight - the estranged brothers fighting alongside one another," Maina said with a smile. "They'd be a more formidable force than Inutaishou himself."

"You're pretty formidable yourself, Lady Maina. We came really close to doing it, to killing Naraku, even with Sesshoumaru out of the fight," Kagome said wistfully.

"Yes, just think - all of us fighting against him, you, Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Sesshoumaru, and myself. We'd pummel that cocky bastard into the ground," Maina considered, grinning with satisfaction at the thought of Naraku lying dead, preferably in pieces.. Suddenly she sighed, becoming melancholy again. "But you know, Kagome, if Sesshoumaru insists on opposing Inuyasha, I'm afraid I won't be able to help in your group's efforts.."

"I understand. You've got your obligations to Sesshoumaru, and you'll stay by his side. Even if he _does_ do something stupid like fight with his brother instead of allying with him to defeat Naraku.." Maina laughed in response, a more sorrowful than amused laugh.

"These inuyoukai really can be a pain sometimes, can't they?" she said wryly.

"A big pain," Kagome agreed.

* * *

"Lord Sesshoumaru, if I might have a few minutes of your time..?"

The taiyoukai cast his cold, uncaring glance on the monk. It was difficult to tell if he were still angry about Miroku's earlier discretions, or if he were just in his normal state of indifferent irritation.

"For what purpose?" he asked emotionlessly.

"I wanted to know if you might enlighten me about the battle yesterday," Miroku said, his voice mostly confident, but subtly fearful.

"What is it you wish to know?" Sesshoumaru inquired, not bothering to even sit up to address the monk. Miroku sat beside the bed, keeping a respectful and safe distance, but close enough that the youkai lord could easily see his face.

"All of us are still in the dark about the circumstances of the battle, including Lady Maina. I thought you might have an idea of Naraku's motives, as you seemed to be his target."

"I do not know why she was captured. Or why Naraku let down his guard, allowing me, and obviously Inuyasha, to track him more easily," Sesshoumaru answered simply, now looking toward the roof of the hut.

"More easily? So you were searching for him already?" The youkai turned his head ever-so-slightly, narrowing his eyes at Miroku as if calling him an idiot and threatening his life at the same time.

"He captured my most powerful ally. Of course I was searching for him."

"Yes, yes, you're right, Lord Sesshoumaru. That really was a stupid thing for me to ask," the monk replied, the fear in his voice rising as he tried to mask it with a goofy smile.

"He took her after she'd stepped outside the barrier of her forest, just as I was taking my leave."

"I see. So why were you there?" This only got Miroku a more threatening glare.

"Not that it is any of your concern, monk, but I was there to check the security of my borders."

"Oh, of course.. Lady Maina said that her forest lies on the border between the Southern lands and yours..," Miroku said a bit more nervously. "Do you think that Naraku might have followed you there and waited for you to emerge from the forest?"

"I smelled him only seconds before he took Lady Maina. There was no sign of his presence prior to that," Sesshoumaru answered flatly, focused once again on the roof.

"So, as far as you know, Naraku was not watching you. If that's true, then either he somehow knew of your plans to go to Lady Maina's forest that day, or else he was targeting Lady Maina herself, waiting until she emerged from the barrier to make his move," Miroku pondered. Sesshoumaru grew silent for a few moments.

"No, that cannot be," the lord suddenly said. "What could he have possibly wanted with her? If he was targeting her, he obviously knew what she was, that he could not kill her. And it would do him no good to hurt a creature that heals faster than a youkai."

"Perhaps, then, his aim was psychological harm," Miroku suggested. "If he wanted to use her to serve his own purposes, he would have to somehow force her, correct? And if she could not be hurt or threatened with death, then he may have been trying to break her spirit instead." Sesshoumaru kept his eyes on the ceiling, but almost imperceptibly narrowed them as he listened to Miroku's theory. He remained silent for a long while. Miroku was not sure if this was a signal for him to leave or if the taiyoukai was simply waiting for him to say more, and after two or three awkwardly quiet minutes, he began to get up. The slight rustling of the monk's robes seemed to shake Sesshoumaru out of his reverie.

"He put rock casings over her hands," he said softy, pensively, still staring at the roof beams above him.

"Huh?" Miroku said, settling back into a sitting position.

"They were meant to prevent Maina from using her powers. Naraku must have known about her..," Sesshoumaru trailed.

"Which means he _was_ targeting her," Miroku finished.

"Yes, it seems so."

* * *

"A son.."

"Yes, Sesshoumaru…"

"_Your_ son," he said accusingly.

"He's got dog ears, so yes, I'm fairly certain he is," the taiyoukai boomed cynically. He grew silent for a short while before amending himself. "I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru..," he began again.

"It's only been seven months since they died, Father. Seven months since your _mate_ died," Sesshoumaru stated harshly. He turned bewilderingly intense eyes on the taller inuyoukai, his mouth open slightly, revealing the sharp fangs that were grinding together. Inutaishou began to speak, but was taken aback as his perpetually respectful son cut him off.

"She was already pregnant!" he yelled, his golden eyes turning a dangerous shade of red. "The whore was already pregnant when Mother died! When Mai died!"

"Sesshoumaru," he began in a commanding voice. His son, however, paid no heed to his authority.

"Your mate fought for her life and lost! Your daughter was torn apart in her own bedroom!" he thundered. His fangs were growing larger and beginning to hinder his speech as poisonous saliva began to drip from his mouth, burning a small crater into the ground between his feet. "And YOU were off fucking your precious human whore instead of protecting them!" Inutaishou's brow furrowed as he let escape a threatening growl.

The entire valley reverberated with the sound of the taiyoukai's fist against his son's jaw. Sesshoumaru was thrown a good fifty feet by the blow, a sickening crack accompanying his landing. Though he had partially broken his jaw, and probably some ribs as well, Inutaishou had stopped his transformation.

"I am still your father, Sesshoumaru. Do not forget that," he said quietly, turning his back on him and walking away.

Sesshoumaru remained where he was, lying on his side, blood and drool dripping from his mouth. His body would heal, he knew, and his father's anger would eventually subside. It wasn't that which kept him there for so long.

It was _guilt_.

He was more than justified in what he'd done. It was all true. It had been his father's fault that they'd died, that most of the tribe had died..

But it wouldn't really matter, would it? He could hold a grudge against his father for the rest of time, spit on his grave when he was dead, destroy the kingdom he'd amassed, but it wouldn't matter at all. People would remember him anyway, and he would never forget that the popular opinion was wrong. He could never purge the memories from his mind, and he could never convince any outsiders of the truth. They all thought too highly of Inutaishou already, they wouldn't believe a word of slander from his son, just as they hadn't believed it from his distraught late mother..

"_I am still your father, Sesshoumaru…"_

He wasn't just feeling guilty. He felt ashamed, ashamed of telling the truth, of saying what needed to be said, because Inutaishou was still his father. And he _had_ been an honorable youkai, years before he discovered his lust for humans. He had been a model leader, a strong father..

Sesshoumaru struck the hard ground with his fist, clenching his eyes shut.

'_Damn it all, I should hate the bastard, but I don't.. I _can't_ hate him, even now, even after all this..'_

_

* * *

_

"Hey, wake up, baka!"

Sesshoumaru only clenched his eyes more tightly shut. Inuyasha smirked. _'Well, I tried it the nice way..'_

He punched his sleeping half-brother in the head, jumping out of the way as the red-eyed youkai slashed his claws through the empty air. Inuyasha just snickered at his attempt.

"Oh, you're awake I see," he sneered. Sesshoumaru, his eyes golden again, glared at the hanyou.

"It's dinner time," Inuyasha continued with a satisfied grin, "and Kaede says you have to eat."

* * *

AN: Ah, yes, Sesshie insights make me a happy little author person. Even if I can't get them quite the way I wanted.

_How many times have I warned you about calling me that?_

What can you do to me, I wonder? You're a figment of my imagination.

_How would you like to find out?_

Um... _(fidgets nervously)_ I'm starting to think this was a mistake...

_Indeed._

Ow, ow! What the hell are you doing?

_Burning some little used brain cells with my dokkasou..._

Ow! I thought people couldn't feel pain in their brains!

_You and your pathetic human doctors..._

Ow! Okay, I give up! I'm sorry, Lord Fluffy... I mean, Lord Sesshoumaru!

_...What did you just call me!_

Nothing! _(cowers)_


	11. Conflicted Hearts

AN: Yay, someone's reading this thingeh!_ (dances) _Funny that I get a review right when I'd started to neglect my writing.. Anywho, because lunaflower323 is such an awesome reviewing reader person _(throws her some cookies and... cat treats? oki.. mebbe i'll get some better rewards at the store later), _I shall get off my arse for a while. Besides, I'm just getting into one of my personal favorite points in the storyline (starts in chapter 13.. dunno how long it will draw out though, knowing me.. lol) Well, that's kinda why I neglected it, I couldn't quite get ze important scene right. But perhaps since I've had my break it will come easier, ne?

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Chapter Eleven - Conflicted Hearts

Laughter pervaded the hot afternoon, coming from the direction of the kitchen hut. Kaede smiled. The goddess that Inuyasha's troupe had brought along yesterday, with one of their most dangerous enemies in tow, no less, seemed to be getting along quite well with Kagome and Sango. The old woman returned to gathering her herbs.

"And then," Sango continued, her eyes tearing up from all her laughing, "Kagome sat Inuyasha right off the side of the cliff!" The three women howled with laughter.

"Was he all right?" Maina asked, catching her breath.

"It wasn't a very tall cliff," Kagome replied, her nose in the air, trying not to continue laughing. "And besides, he's half youkai, it's not like it would have done any permanent damage. Not to mention he deserved it!"

"It had to be the most entertaining thing I've ever seen!" Sango interjected.

"I don't know, I think what you did to Miroku a week or two ago was just as funny," Kagome said with a smile.

"What happened?" Maina asked, fluffing the rice that would be served at dinner.

"We camped near this huge hot spring," Kagome began, "and Sango and I went to bathe.."

"And there was this big black frog sitting on a rock nearby, only it was dark out so we didn't see it," Sango continued for her.

"Yes, and it jumped right on Sango, and she screamed and jumped up out of the water," Kagome said, already beginning to laugh, and once again forgetting that she was supposed to be preparing the fish sitting before her.

"And Miroku rushed in to see what was wrong..," Sango supplied.

"And he saw Sango standing there stark naked.." Kagome paused for a moment, unable to keep the premature laughter at bay.

"And so I grabbed a towel as quickly as I could and covered myself up, and the frog was still there, but I was so embarrassed that I'd forgotten all about it.." Sango now was laughing as well, though her cheeks were showing some color from the relived discomfiture of the incident.

"And she started chasing Miroku with her Hiraikotsu and hitting him over the head with it," Kagome supplied, holding her stomach, tears now coming to her eyes as well.

"And when Miroku turned around to face me, trying to explain himself," Sango giggled, "the frog jumped out from under my towel and onto his face!"

All three rolled with laughter for a full minute, their duties of food preparation long forgotten.

"He was scrambling to get it off of him - his eyes were as big as saucers!" Kagome exclaimed. Maina, the first to regain her composure, began to reason out the story.

"But it sounds to me like Miroku really did have a good reason," she began.

"Oh, he peeks in at us so often and comes up with so many lame excuses for it that the rare times in which it _is_ justified are pretty much ignored," Kagome laughed.

"Besides," Sango interjected, "I was so angry with him then that I forgot I'd even screamed in the first place - I didn't believe him when he said he heard it!"

"And if he's not peeking in on us while we're bathing, he's groping our behinds or asking us to bear him children," Kagome said dryly.

"So it's true that he asks every woman that?" Both Sango and Kagome sighed with knowing.

"When did he ask you?" Sango said with an irritated scowl.

"While I was in the middle of changing Sesshoumaru's bandages," she answered with an amused smile.

"Did he grope you too?" Sango asked.

"No, fortunately for him he didn't," Maina said, her smile widening as she tried not to laugh.

"What happened?" Sango asked. A sly smile crept across Kagome's face - she had a hunch she knew what had happened.

"Well, Miroku had just told me about his family's curse and all," Maina began, already giggling, "and then popped the question.."

"And?" the other two asked in unison, their eyes wide with anticipation.

"And Sesshoumaru started growling at him," Maina replied, she now being the one laughing before the entire story was told instead of the other two, "and he told Miroku that if he touched me he'd rip him apart before his kazaana ever got a chance to kill him!" The other two laughed, if a bit nervously, along with her.

"But then," she continued, calming down again, but still grinning uncontrollably, "then he said that he was just trying to protect me from falling under the lecher's persuasion!"

"Ha! That sounds like the same lame stuff Inuyasha says after trying to kill Kouga!" Kagome exclaimed. Maina gave her a questioning look.

"Kouga is a wolf youkai," Sango explained, "and he proclaims that he's in love with Kagome."

"Ah, so Inuyasha has a rival!" Maina exclaimed. "No wonder he seemed perturbed when he thought that I was a wolf youkai!"

"Indeed," she continued, "Inuyasha just _hates_ Kouga. The only reason he hasn't killed him is because Kagome keeps sitting him whenever he tries to!" All three started laughing again, having been reminded again of the image of Inuyasha being sat off a cliff.

"It's a good thing that Miroku's not a serious rival," Kagome said, first to break up this bout of laughter. "You seem to have some amount of control over Sesshoumaru, Lady Maina, but it's not nearly as direct a control as Inuyasha's rosary."

"Can we drop the lady stuff, Kagome? I'm really not all that fond of formality," Maina said with a kind smile.

"Okay, Maina," Kagome responded cheerily. The women quieted for a moment, and began to start on the dinner preparations again, when Kagome spoke up, her mood noticeably more somber.

"Maina," she began quietly, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Maina looked up from the rice she had resumed work on.

"Alright, I suppose you can..," she said hesitantly.

"What's your relationship to Sesshoumaru? Really?"

"Kagome, Sesshoumaru is… a private man," she replied meekly, now regretting having recounted the amusing events that insinuated a relationship she had not wanted them to know about.

"He doesn't.. hurt you, does he?" Sango asked quietly, thinking back on what she'd seen of his uncaring killings.

"No, no, it's nothing like that!" she said quickly. "He's perfectly gentle with me, really!" The two of them blinked at her, dumbfounded.

"Gentle?" Sango repeated. "Are we talking about the same Sesshoumaru?" Kagome waved her hand in a negative motion at Sango and quickly replaced the query with a kind explanation.

"Look, the reason I'm asking is just that.. Well, he's not the most sociable of people, but he seems comfortable, even companionable, with you. And during the battle, he was genuinely worried about you - it was written all over his face, which is of course a _huge_ leap for someone like him.." Maina looked up at the girl with wide eyes.

"You saw that too?" she asked softly. Kagome nodded. "I didn't just imagine it then…"

"It seems pretty obvious you aren't just allies, like you've told us.." Maina was focused a little too much on the rice by this point.

"We've known each other for a very long time, Kagome. I don't think I've ever been put in any kind of danger before - any situation where I couldn't use my powers. Maybe he just didn't know how to react to it.."

"Or maybe there's more to it than that," Kagome said with a smile.

"Nonsense," Maina said firmly, shaking her head for emphasis. "Our relationship is strictly casual. It's nothing serious." Kagome placed a hand on her shoulder and peered into her strangely nature-esque eyes with her own deep brown ones.

"Maina, is it your heart saying that, or your head?" Maina turned her head away from the school girl.

"You don't understand. There can't be any more between us than there already is," she said quietly. "We've each got our own responsibilities, our own duties. It simply can't work."

"What do you mean?" Sango asked.

"He rules over vast lands - he has to roam about to do that effectively. And I can't exactly abandon my forest and allow the violent southern youkai to invade, now can I?" she said defensively.

"I didn't mean to upset you by bringing this up, Maina," Kagome said soothingly. "To tell you the truth, I've just been kind of concerned about you."

"Concerned?" she asked in disbelief. "But you barely even know me.."

"Yes, but you've been brooding an awful lot, and I don't need to know you all that closely to see it," Kagome told her. "And it's when Sesshoumaru's brought up that you become melancholy like that. Believe me, I know that sort of behavior - I think I probably originated it." Maina gave her a questioning look, but the young woman just smiled kindly.

"You can trust us, Maina," Kagome continued. "I think it's safe to say that all of us are in the same boat. I've got heaps of conflict about my feelings for Inuyasha.."

"And I have mine about Miroku..," Sango said softly, nodding her agreement.

"Miroku?" Maina asked. "I don't see many problems there. Sure, he's a hopeless lecher, but he always seems to be kidding around in that respect. He has a good heart. He'll come around."

"You've only known him for a day…"

"I've known many similar to him, some of them much worse, believe me, and they all ended up settling down in the end. And I never heard of any of them having problems in their marriages, either, if you can imagine that," Maina said with a smile. "But what about you, Kagome? It seems to me yours is just a case of stubbornness and pride on Inuyasha's part."

"Eh, it's pretty complicated, actually," Kagome said with a nervous little laugh. "It's not only that Inuyasha is more stubborn than a mule, and that there's a wolf youkai trying to win me over. There's also… another woman." A serious expresson crossed Maina's face as her mind automatically thought back to Inutaishou, who Inuyasha reminded her of in so many respects, and who had had affairs with various human women despite being mated..

"Her name is Kikyou," Kagome began. "To make a long story short, she died fifty years ago after pinning Inuyasha to a tree because Naraku tricked them into betraying one another. She was brought back to life, and now Inuyasha runs after her whenever she happens to cross our path.."

"You're in competition with the miko who sealed him under that sleeping spell for fifty years?" Maina asked with a gasp.

"You know about it?"

"Yes, it happened just before the second Great War! We were even more outnumbered than in the first, as the handful of inuyoukai who survived the first one had since died, and we had to assemble instead a hodge-podge of Inutaishou's old allies. Jaken went out to find Inuyasha and ask for his assistance in fighting the panther youkai, but he came back telling us that he'd been sealed to a tree! But it turned out all right in the end, because by that time I had discovered how to make semi-permanent barriers, so I didn't have to use up all my energy trying to maintain them during the battle," Maina explained.

Suddenly, the door flap was pushed aside, and Kaede stepped inside the kitchen hut.

"How is dinner coming?" she asked, wearing a sagely smile. She'd had a feeling they were socializing too much to be cooking very quickly, and it was nearing dinner time.

"Um, just fine, Lady Kaede!" Kagome said cheerily, quickly picking up her knife. "I'm just about done preparing this fish to be cooked!" The other two women, she noticed, had found ways of secretly sneaking back to their work as well.

"Just see that it's done soon, girls, the sun's beginning to set already," she said, exiting the hut. She almost laughed aloud as she heard them scrambling about inside, nervously asking each other if certain items of food were done yet.

* * *

"Here you are," Maina said cheerily, placing the tray of food before Sesshoumaru. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Did the old woman tell you to bring me so much?" he asked irritably.

"The more you eat, the better and faster your wounds will heal," she replied matter-of-factly. He glared at the dishes on his tray, all generously piled with food.

"I am healing perfectly well with a single bowl of food as a meal. I will eat no more than that." Maina sighed and walked across the room, where everyone else had already begun to eat. She took her tray, on which she had already dished out all she wanted, poured herself a cup of tea, and took all of it back to Sesshoumaru's bedside. The others watched her curiously, but she paid them no mind. As soon as she seated herself next to the taiyoukai, Shippo took the opportunity to steal the goddess' spot between Kagome and Sango.

"You do not have to sit with me," Sesshoumaru told her quietly. She flashed him a half-smile.

"It would be rude to let you eat alone over here."

"I have no problem with solitude."

"Yes, I know," she said, bringing a piece of fish to her mouth with her chopsticks. Chewing it quickly and politely, she continued. "But someone has to make sure you eat, correct?" He only glared at her in response. She was unfazed. Putting on a subtle and pleasant smile, she pointed to one of the dishes in front of him with her chopsticks.

"You really should try that, at least," she told him. "I got a sample of it while we were cooking. It's delicious." Sesshoumaru picked up his chopsticks, but only poked at the food, turning it over, examining it. Maina chuckled, provoking him to return to his glaring.

"It's not poisonous, you know. I was right there in the kitchen while the food was being prepared - I even cooked some of it myself," she said with an amused grin.

"It's human food, nevertheless," he stated impassively. She narrowed her gentle eyes with an almost inaudible 'hmmph.'

"In all my years, never have I met a creature as stubborn as you..," she muttered. She picked up a chunk of food from said dish with her own chopsticks, holding her free hand beneath it so as not to make a mess on the white silks that had miraculously come clean after having been so thoroughly bloodied, and she raised the food to the level of Sesshoumaru's mouth. "Just eat this much, and I'll _consider_ leaving you alone about the food issue."

The two sat there for a few moments, exchanging equally formidable death glares, before the taiyoukai finally gave in. It was a trivial matter, after all - he would let her win. There would be more important victories to take for himself, he reasoned. He leaned forward and took the food. A self-satisfied smirk crossed the goddess' face as she watched Sesshoumaru chew and swallow the food as quickly as he could without choking himself.

"See? It's not so bad, is it?"

"It's palatable," he grumbled, "but just barely."

"Good, that means you can eat the rest of that dish as well!" she exclaimed with a wide grin. Sesshoumaru growled, low enough that not even Inuyasha could hear him from the other side of the room, but loud enough that Maina could hear it from her close proximity.

"If you were not immortal, I think I would have killed you by now for your insolence," he said in that cold and commanding voice that made all others fall to their knees begging for mercy. But she wasn't intimidated in the least - and not just because she was immortal, either. She laughed good-heartedly at his threat.

"I don't believe you would do such a thing," she said confidently. Suddenly, she lowered her voice to the practiced volume which only his keen hearing could detect. "I'm far too dear to you as an ally, Sesshoumaru…"

* * *

The dinner circle across the room watched with great curiosity as the goddess slowly but surely got the stoic taiyoukai to eat. They couldn't really hear what either of them were saying, but they took great notice when Maina fed him. All but Shippo, who was intently focused on eating, sat with chopsticks hanging in midair as the proud creature took the food from her. Then they all looked at each other with matching wide eyes, the silent question hanging in the air.

'_What the hell is with Sesshoumaru?'_

_

* * *

_

AN: Oki, I admit, this one is a filler chapter because I'm trying to have a certain amount of time passing in between the significant events.. But it helps in that whole character development area I suppose.. _(excuses excuses) _Anywho, I love this chapter, filler or not. I have a love/hate relationship with those lighthearted filler episodes that are so frequent in Inuyasha's fifth season.. They are fun but.. still._ (rambles again...)_

Oh well. I had much fun with the kitchen scene in this chapter. I laughed myself just as silly as the girls did.. And the memories of theirs didn't come from events in the show.. Well, I seem to remember Inu getting sat off the side of a cliff, but my memory may be playing tricks on me. Fun fun! Chapter 12 will come soon.. it's a short one, but it bugs me and I might rewrite half of the damned thing, but I'll delay it more if I can't get 13 worked out quickly enough.. Sorry for those who like quick updates, I'm more the type to let it sit for a week or so, changing a word here and there or rearranging a sentence once or twice a day.. Paranoid perfectionists unite!


	12. Unusual Routines

AN: Just a warning, I tried my best, but this chapter still sucks in my mind. Mebbe you'll disagree.. I considered combining it with the next chapter, since it's actually got some important content in it... And is a lot better than this one. But either way, this cruddy chapter was needed. So just.. deal with it and wait for the next chapter. Besides, you might get all confuzzled if you skip this one. We don't want that.

DISCLAIMER (yep, I remembered it..): I don't own Inuyasha.. or Sesshie-sama. Sigh. I own Maina, though.. and whatever's associated with her, which I list every once in a while bc disclaimers are a pain in the ass and I don't feel like writing good ones all the time. Or even half the time. Whee, yeah.

* * *

Chapter Twelve - Unusual Routines, but Routines Just the Same...

The next two days were largely uneventful, passing in much the same way the second day had, with Maina changing Sesshoumaru's bandages in the morning and the old miko taking a passing glance to see how the wounds were healing, followed by a small meal, which now included a bowl of herbal soup that was made to help him heal, or so Kaede told him. And he was indeed healing, but both Kaede and Maina demanded he remain in bed nevertheless.

There was not much for him to do between this late morning meal and dinner. Maina always left him after he had eaten, leaving him with the options of doing nothing or accepting the company of his half-brother's human friends. He would have rather enjoyed killing them, simply because he had encountered them all on so many different occasions and had his fun ruined in so many battles by the pests. Needless to say, he'd begun to develop an certain aversion to all of them.

Maina, however, couldn't seem to get enough of their company. Every day her pure foresty scent became more and more tainted by human civilization. The humans themselves stank to no end, but there were also the various offensive smells of their cooking experiments and of the horses, cattle, and other animals they kept. But it didn't matter to her, obviously, because each day she would leave the hut and spend the daylight hours with them. Sometimes she would follow Kaede around in her daily duties, learning about the herbs she picked or lending a helping hand to the old miko when she had physical chores to do. Often she would walk carelessly with the younger miko and the taijiya, talking for hours about trivial things. Of course, they would sometimes wander far away from the hut, out of Sesshoumaru's hearing range, and only they knew what their conversations turned to then. Once, she even stopped and talked to Inuyasha, who was patrolling around the hut, as he had become accustomed to doing since his half-brother had arrived there. The hanyou spoke loudly, so that even a human in Sesshoumaru's place could have heard him. And she seemed happily engaged in all his talk, even laughing heartily over his rambling and badly told stories, which were obviously half-truths. The battles he spoke of - no, they couldn't have worked out the way he said they did, even if he did have the Tetsusaiga.

As for Sesshoumaru, he would have been content to spend his days just thinking. He was used to being alone with his thoughts - they suited him better than the trivial talk of the humans surrounding him. However, the monk came to him yet again on the third day. He thought it would be wise to 'compare notes' about Naraku so that both his troupe and Sesshoumaru would have all available information on their mutual enemy and thus be better prepared to face him. This was a reasonable idea, so the taiyoukai accepted his company. He, at least, spoke business, whereas the others either made some flippant greeting as they passed or put on a false smile and asked about his health. Miroku, however, proved himself to be an acceptable human, which was a rare thing. He actually got along quite well with the monk, as he was a logical and reasonable man, much like Sesshoumaru himself. He was also the most respectful of Inuyasha's group, unless there happened to be an attractive woman around, and actually treated Sesshoumaru like the powerful lord he was. The rest didn't seem to respect or fear him at all - he expected the insolence from his half-brother, but had not been prepared for the human women of the group, who spoke to him as if he were equal to them, one of their own. He, the great Lord of the Western lands, equal to a couple of human women? It was enough to make him want to jump up and tear the damned wounds open in the process just to punish them for it, only they tended to pass by in the mornings and evenings, when Maina was there to stop him.

He and the monk spoke of Naraku's past habits, the miscellaneous clues they had picked up about him along the way, and where he might have run off to this time. The monk had obviously been moving about during Sesshoumaru's stay in the village, for he recounted some talks he'd had with travelers to see if anything out of the ordinary had been happening, but he had found out nothing of substance. He reasoned that Naraku might have gone into hiding yet again, as he needed to repair his body, adding that he was sometimes gone for quite a long time in such cases. He based his theory also on the basis that no one had sensed Naraku's demonic aura anywhere near the village, and neither Inuyasha nor Sesshoumaru had detected his scent since the battle.

Having expounded upon the subject of Naraku as much as possible, Sesshoumaru assumed that the monk would leave the hut as the others did every day, but he did not. Instead, he turned the conversation to battles in general. Once again he convinced the taiyoukai with reason - discussing past battles would give each an edge in future ones. It made sense.

And so for the third and forth day in the village, Sesshoumaru spent the daylight hours in such conversations with Miroku. In the evenings, everyone gathered in the main room of the hut for dinner, all of them sitting in a circle and speaking of some trivial daily happenings as they ate, after which they continued these conversations with empty plates before them. Maina was perfectly content to sit with the taiyoukai during dinner, usually staying by his side until the others decided to retire. He had begun to notice, though, how the humans tended to watch them when they were having a conversation. Of course, they all believed him a heartless youkai, and he had no problem with such opinions. But this opinion created an odd sort of awe in them - they seemed amazed to see that a creature such as he could hold a civil conversation at all, staring at him when they thought he didn't see them, looking at him as if he were a deaf-mute who'd begun talking all of a sudden. It was not as if the two of them discussed anything personal in the evenings - he would do no such thing anyway - but still it bothered him to know that they were eavesdropping on him and probably not even considering what he might do to them for such an offense..

He slept throughout most of each night, but no more than that. His body wasn't in a critical state anymore, so he only slept for a few hours at night, usually rising before any of the humans, but sleeping just a bit longer than his half-brother.

He had begun to get restless by the fourth day. He was accustomed to roaming his lands, not lying all day in bed. Jaken irritated him, but he at least feared him. And he could always injure the imp if he was angry. Here, no one seemed to fear him, and he was prevented from injuring any of them by the sense of honor that bid him, so long as he was their guest, not to harm them without direct provocation, despite his great desire to do so. Granted, the tiny kitsune that was always hanging around the improperly dressed miko did remind him of his Rin, but that did not help much to ease his frustration. The fox child, if he did not fear him, at least did a thorough job of avoiding him, sleeping in the room where the women stayed and riding on the miko's shoulder when she left the hut, keeping far from Sesshoumaru's place on the floor, watching the taiyoukai with a mixture of curiosity and awe as they passed. He could often hear this Shippo child crying for his surrogate mother, usually followed by some threat by Inuyasha. He would smirk at hearing this, having come to anticipate the vehement "SIT!" that almost always accompanied the kit's cries. He had seen this command at work before - the thud following it only made the images in his mind concrete. Yes, he could see in his mind's eye the idiot hanyou crashing to the ground, and idly wondered if perhaps the kitsune found the same satisfaction in it that he did.

It was to Rin that his thoughts drifted at random intervals during the uneventful days. Jaken wasn't the best of babysitters, but he knew that Maina's wolves would look after the child and would sound the alert if something was amiss in the forest. There really was no sense in worrying.. No, he wasn't worrying. He was simply trying to work out the logistics of his situation. It was preposterous to think that he was worried about anything.

But just as his dreams focused on his ancient past, his waking thoughts could not be torn for long from his recent past, particularly his memories of the recent battle. He'd replayed it in his head countless times, always scolding himself for being so careless. It was just irrational, all of it. He knew that even Naraku didn't have the power to hurt a being such as Maina, and he had overreacted in the most idiotic of ways - he'd let his guard down. Never mind _why _he had done that, the important thing was that he had and could not afford to let himself do the same again. Besides, the implications of the word 'why' were not pleasing to the taiyoukai. He'd decided long ago that he hated that word, and now his ill feelings toward the seemingly simple question were renewed. She was an important ally, one of the few left who was still able to hold her own in battle - the rest were ancient, even by youkai standards. And of course he couldn't afford to lose her protection of the southern border. This alone provided enough justification for his rash behavior during the battle.

But there were two sides to the coin - he had been foolish, of course, but Naraku was the one who'd injured him. A month or two ago he wouldn't have cared in the least about the arrogant hanyou, but now he'd made the mistake of making Sesshoumaru his enemy. He'd captured Rin some time ago, then proceeded to capture his ally, then had attacked him in a most dishonorable and sneaky fashion, and would have killed him if not for Tenseiga. Naraku would pay dearly for his unwise actions against the great taiyoukai of the Western lands..

* * *

For her part, Maina was having a wonderful time in Kaede's village, aside from having to put up with Sesshoumaru's behavior. She hadn't been outside her forest, or at least not this far outside it, since the last war, which was about fifty years ago. And it had been even longer since she'd had a close friend - since Miharu's death she hadn't had any regular visitors other than Sesshoumaru. Travelers were nice as temporary companions, but travel took so long that most were never seen again after that first journey through her forest, content to remain in whatever place they'd journeyed to. She'd almost forgotten how nice it felt to be able to confide in other women, though of course she'd never reveal anything deeply personal to Kagome or Sango - chiefly because her deeply personal issues involved Sesshoumaru, and she didn't want to go around behind his back talking about such matters.

She could, however, relate to them her recent conflicts without revealing too much. Both of the women she'd befriended were conflicted, not only over how to go about the inevitable confession of love each of them would have to make to her respective partner, but also because they weren't entirely sure of their feelings in the first place. They knew what they desired, but until they knew for sure of their men's feelings, they could not be entirely sure of their own - at the same time, they could not confront their men about it until they were sure of their own feelings. It was quite a vicious circle they'd found themselves in.

Maina's conflict was somewhat different. While they were, in a way, in the middle of their circles, having realized that they did have those sorts of feelings, she was just starting, even though she'd already reached a level of intimacy neither of them had with their men. She was going about all of it backwards. It hadn't bothered her this way before. Their relationship had always been of a strictly sexual nature, as had most of her previous ones. She'd had many youkai as lovers in the past, but she'd never loved any of them - that is to say, she never mated with any of them. Hell, they'd mated other youkai after her affairs with them had ended - she'd even kept in contact with some of them, gotten to know their mates and seen their children grow into adulthood. This relationship had been the same, only it had gone on for far longer than the others. But that was attributable to Sesshoumaru's personality. Not only was he a man of routine, but he had never been one to really care for anyone outside of his family. She had thought even when he was young that he would probably remain a bachelor for a very long time before taking a mate, just as Inutaishou had done. Of course, having been through what he had, she knew that when he found a mate, he would be staunchly loyal. Even if he inherited some of the perversities of his father, he was too honorable to ever act upon them. He was a man of strict self-discipline, unlike Inutaishou. He would probably force himself to remain loyal to his mate, if nothing else.

But all at once, it had become something more to her. She'd seen so many people die, lost so many of those close to her because of her own immortal life, but never had it so pained her, so… traumatized her. And this feeling was making her rethink everything in new terms, no matter how she tried to suppress those thoughts. She didn't want to dwell on these things, because they all led her down the same path - that of asking herself why. And that was a dangerous question to ask. It was bad enough to ask it within her own head, but even as she tried to suppress her subconscious answer, her new confidante decided to voice it on her fourth afternoon in the village. Placing a supportive hand on her shoulder, Kagome said what Maina would not allow her mind's voice to.

"Do you love him, Maina?" Drawing her legs up to her chest, Maina attempted to bury her thoughts in her knees, but the question lingered in her mind, demanding an answer. Sighing in defeat, she looked back up at Kagome's kind face - and actually laughed.

"These days, Kagome, I really don't know…"

* * *

AN: Oki... I have some serious issues with the latter half of this chapter.. compared with it, the first half is fine, but don't be fooled, I don't like it either. My main issue is... I hate it. I just hate it to death. _(beats it with a spoon) _Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fix it up any better than its current form. Grr. I swear, if it didn't have a greater duty to fulfill as far as the storyline goes, I'd just delete that section altogether. I've read it countless times, and tried to fix it every time, but it just won't let me. It's got a crappified mind of its own and wants to undo me. Someone kill the part of my brain that motivated me to type that in the first place...

_(slash.. followed by the bubbly sound of flesh being burned by a certain muse's poison..)_

Ow! I didn't mean that literally...

_My apologies, authoress, but it is my duty here to do as you say, is it not?_

...You and your rationale.

_You could always order me not to obey you.._

Not happening, Fluffy.

_(death glare) It's Fluffy-_sama_ to you._


	13. A Sad Smile

AN: This has taken longer than I intended... Chapter 14 is just... annoyingly difficult to write. And it's taking me forever and ever amen to do it. Ugh. _(throws apologies and cookies out to lunaflower323 and whoever else might care) _Anywho, I've kind of almost got 14 halfway done... maybe... and it's been over a week since I posted the last chapter, so I'm just going ahead and throwing this one out there. Maybe I'll actually finish 14 by next week, who knows. Friggin' writer's block.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from Inuyasha, even if I do use them. That's kinda the entire point of fanfiction, right? But starting this chapter I own some extra people, w00t. I own not only Maina but also Miharu and Mai (and everything concerning them... except the fluffy one, unfortunately). And, just a note, I really didn't make all their names start with 'm' on purpose (well.. I did in one instance.. but that's not the point.) Really. It actually annoys me, I'm just not gonna bother to change it.

So, don't sue me over my borrowed characters, and don't steal my OC's. Ki?

* * *

Chapter Thirteen - A Sad Smile

She was awoken by the jubilant howls of her messenger wolves. As her visitors approached, the wolves that had been lying around her jumped up to greet them, yelping as ecstatically as young pups. She smiled, but remained where she was, her back resting against the trunk of a large tree as she sat nestled between two of its above-ground roots. Without opening her eyes, she knew who her visitors must be. A woman's laughter rang through the small clearing as the wolves continued their excited greetings.

Slowly, Maina opened her eyes upon the little scene. A female inuyoukai stood in the center, surrounded by the happily leaping black wolves, donning a fine kimono of deep blue, adorned as always with a white silken scarf that hung simply around her shoulders and passed under her obi with the ends, decorated with the red floral design that signified her tribe, swaying freely just above her knees. In her arms she held a bundle wrapped in white, which the goddess could not quite see, but could easily guess at. Her pure white hair floated around her in the light breeze like a billowing silk curtain. Going against the style of the day, her hair was kept all the same length, with no bangs to hide the fine lines of her porcelain face or her deep eyes of molten gold, perpetually outlined in a magenta eye shadow that mimicked the twin youkai markings on her slender cheeks. Her carefree laughter, something which had become all too rare in recent years, flowed from her at the wolves' affectionate greetings.

Beside her, also surrounded by wolves, was her son of fourteen, wearing the exquisite white silks appropriate to an heir, which were touched at the neck and sleeves with the tribe's design. His hair almost rivaled his mother's - in fact, he came as close as one could imagine to a male clone of her, aside from the crescent moon on his forehead, a mark which appeared only on males, and then, only on those destined to become the taiyoukai of the tribe.

Once she thought her wolves had had ample time to greet them, Maina rose from her seat at the base of the tree and moved to embrace her friend.

"Miharu, it's been nearly a month since I've seen you!" the goddess told her, the grin that involuntarily spread across her face invalidating her intended accusation.

"Believe me, Maina, youkai births are not the easiest events. I was in bed for two whole days before the actual birth! I think I might have preferred to be ripped apart!" the inu queen exclaimed.

"Oh, you said the same thing when Sesshoumaru was born," Maina replied with a laugh and a quick glance towards Miharu's silent son. "I've been worried sick here, you know. You said you'd send someone to tell me about your condition!"

"I know, I'm sorry, but I really have been laid up. Inutaishou insisted I stay in the den and get as much rest as possible, which isn't much with a hungry little pup to take care of, let me tell you. Everyone else has been buzzing about the dens trying to help me as well as the other new mothers.."

"Other ones?"

"Yes, four new pups have been born since we last spoke."

"If only I could find some way to fix the barrier so that I can come visit the dens once in a while - I get so behind in the news, you know?" Miharu laughed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough."

"Alright, enough of this, I want to see… um..," Maina began, idly scratching her chin. Miharu laughed again.

"It's a girl," she told her with a wide smile. She held out the bundle in her arms and pushed aside its white wrap. The sleeping child's mouth hung open just the slightest bit, allowing an insignificant trail of drool to escape, but through that opening Maina could see a tiny fang. Her head was already covered in wispy, downy white hair, and on each cheek was a single magenta stripe.

"Oh! She's beautiful, Miharu!" Maina gasped. "Have you named her yet?" She smiled again in response.

"I have a name in mind."

"Well, out with it!" Maina told her with a lighthearted laugh.

"I want to name her Mai, in your honor." Maina's eyes grew wide.

"I.. I don't know what to say," she stuttered. "I really don't deserve it.."

"You are my truest friend," Miharu interrupted, her expression becoming somber. "The only person besides my son that ever believed me. Everyone else… they have such a perfect picture of him in their minds - they all but shun me if I speak ill of him," she continued quietly. Maina watched her in silence, feeling utterly helpless, as she always had, in her abilities to comfort her friend. Sesshoumaru only stood by, unmoving, with his arms crossed over his chest and his gaze fixed on some faraway object.

"Really, Miharu, I.. I only listen. It's not as if I could ever help you..," she began. A sad smile graced the inu queen's face.

"You support me, even just by listening. You have no idea how stifling it can be at the dens, unable to really talk to anyone. The others have been a bit nicer during the latter part of my pregnancy and after the birth, though.."

"Well, it's a start, at least..," Maina mumbled, not knowing quite what she should say.

"A false one," Miharu said, bitterness entering her melodic voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Inutaishou came to me purposely that night. He had not lain with me for many weeks before that, and has not done so since. I believe I've told you that much."

"Yes…"

"I've become quite convinced that the only reason he came was to impregnate me so the rest of the tribe might show more respect for me. A sort of reminder to them that I am, after all, their leader's mate, or perhaps to dispel any doubts I may have given them about his loyalty to me."

"That's not a good way to think," Maina said with a frown. "She is a child. No matter his motives, she is an innocent child, you cannot forget that."

"I know. I didn't mean to make it seem as if I do not care for her," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared into the infant's small face. "I really do love her. I may have been depressed during the pregnancy, but just looking at her.."

"I understand," Maina said with a true smile. "I've fallen in love with her myself from just a single look." She carefully stroked the baby's hair, making sure not to wake her.

"I would be immensely honored if she were named for me," she began after some moments of silence, "even though I am still not convinced that I am worthy of it." Miharu smiled happily now.

"I'm glad, though to tell you the truth, I haven't discussed her naming with Inutaishou yet. I don't think he will easily accept having his child given such a simple name."

"It's only fair, I think, since he chose your first child's name," Maina told her with a goodhearted laugh. As if on cue, Sesshoumaru chose this moment to finally speak.

"Mother," he began, his voice assertive and even, no doubt a tone he had been practicing in attempt to sound more mature and responsible to his father, "I believe it is time we took our leave."

Miharu turned lovingly toward her son, smiling pleasantly, if not falsely.

"Yes, you're probably right," she replied. She turned back to Maina and spoke softly. "It amazes me sometimes the way he keeps track of time, and other things as well. I still don't understand how he came to be such a natural planner with someone as rash as Inutaishou for a father." Maina laughed.

"Perhaps he's been training him idealistically, rather than having him model his own ways. He may indeed be rash, but he is no fool. I believe he knows his own faults and is trying not to pass them on." Miharu chuckled at this assessment, but Sesshoumaru seemed to be ignoring their continued conversation.

"Let us hope so," she told the goddess. "I will return as soon as I can, hopefully for a longer visit than this one. It will be easier to travel here when Mai is a bit older, after all."

"My forest is always open to you, never forget." Miharu smiled again and gracefully turned to leave, three of Maina's wolves walking protectively alongside her. Before her son could join her, Maina quietly called him aside. He stepped up to her, bowing respectfully.

"Yes, Lady Maina?" She chuckled.

"Such formality is hardly befitting to one so young, despite what adults may have told you," she observed. She placed a friendly hand on his shoulder and bent slightly to look into his eyes. "Do take good care of your mother, Sesshoumaru."

"Of course," he replied impassively.

"What I mean is, she needs more than just help taking care of the household and the baby. She needs your love and support, even if it's only in small doses," Maina continued. "Take five or ten minutes away from your training or your studies each day and instead spend it talking with her, or even just sitting with her. Little gestures like that go a lot farther than you might think."

Sesshoumaru's expression softened ever slightly, and he nodded. The goddess smiled and released his shoulder, and he left by his mother's path. Maina remained for a moment, simply staring in the direction the inuyoukai had taken, until a wet nose nudged her hand, interrupting her reverie. She smiled down at the gentle creature standing beside her, his thick black fur shining in the sunlight that had penetrated the little clearing.

"They'll be just fine, won't they?" she asked the wolf, stroking the soft fur at the base of his ear. He whined, looking up at her with what could only be described as a smile. He seemed to be convinced that her statement was true, even if she herself was not.

"At any rate, she certainly seems happier than when she last visited.."

* * *

Maina awoke in old Kaede's hut, lying in her bedding on the floor. As her mind emerged completely from its hazy sleep state, she realized that the other women, Kagome, Sango, and Kaede, were still sleeping. Even the young kitsune, Shippo, had not moved from his place at Kagome's side, nor had the neko youkai, Kirara, stirred from her sleeping place at Sango's feet. She must have woken quite early, she reasoned, if everyone else was still asleep. Her suspicions were confirmed when she finally noticed just how bright it was in the room - in fact, there was a patch of sunlight on Kagome's bedding. The room was always dark if no lamps were lit, as the sun had to come through the door flap in the main room at just the right angle to light Kaede's windowless bedroom in the least. Maina had never been awake in the hut while the sun was in its early morning position, and she briefly wondered if it was the rare sunlight in this room that awoke the others at such early hours.

She gently pushed aside her blanket and stood up, deciding that she would come back later to put away her bedding. As long as everyone else was sleeping, she thought, she might as well go for a walk. The sleepy village and the cool morning air would provide a peaceful start to her day.

She stepped silently into the main room, now well practiced at moving about the hut without disturbing the sensitive ears of the resident youkai and hanyou. She kept her eyes on the peacefully sleeping Miroku and Inuyasha until she reached the central fire pit, and, satisfied that they were not waking, turned toward Sesshoumaru's bedding.

The pelt sat alongside the bed, allowing only the last foot or two of the blankets to be seen from where she stood, and sitting high enough to hide the sleeping lord as well. Maina was a bit surprised to see that the foot of the bedding lay flat, as if Sesshoumaru had curled his legs up as he slept, which was simply preposterous. Even in sleep the youkai lord was full of grace, always remaining on his back, his legs never bent, with his single arm resting across his stomach. She stepped around the fire pit to get a better look and paled.

Sesshoumaru was gone.

* * *

AN: Starting this chapter, I've got a new policy going. Instead of the regular R & R, I'm instituting a **Triple R **- **read**, **review**, and **recommend** - because, let's face it, that's the only way to get any more readers, since I'm basically a newbie here and don't know anyone or have any connections on ff net. As of now I have a grand total of one reader, unless there are some others that are being reeeeeeeally sneaky about it. And sneaky non-reviewers get no cookies from ze author person. And ze author person has a lot of imaginary cookies to tempt readers with _(waves them around in the air)_

So, whether you love it, like it, tolerate it, hate it, wish to print it out and burn it, whatever.. Review it anyway. And then tell other people to read it... unless you're one of the hating readers. Then it might be better if you kept it hush-hush. Kapiche? Or however you spell that..


	14. Eternal Innocence

AN: _(falls over dead) _It's finally done! My apologies to everyone for the wait... Writer's block can be a real bitch sometimes.. I've been reworking this thing like crazy after spending days just trying to get it all out, and now I can't stand to edit it anymore. Ugh. Why is it I always do the worst job on the chapters that are actually important? But, before I forget..

_(grins stupidly and tosses out peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies to lectaelf, Kanerva, and Lady of Perfection) _Reviewness is much appreciated!

DISCLAIMER: (wow... I've remembered this several chapters in a row... amazing..) I still don't own any of the characters from Inuyasha_ (shniffles) _but I do own Maina, Miharu, and Mai, and I am willing to send my muse out to assassinate anyone who attempts to steal them - just because he's adorably fluffy doesn't mean he can't slice plagiarizers to bits.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen - Eternal Innocence

In one brilliant instant, the energy whip slashed through the dense granite of the boulder and sent the top half flying. It hit the earth heavily as the whip disappeared into the index and middle fingers from whence it came. It was a clean, perfect cut - the rock's surface was sliced so flat that one might have been able to see his reflection in it. Sesshoumaru, however, looked on it with disdain. It still wasn't good enough. In order to perfect his attack, he needed to make such a clean cut on a moving target, to do what he'd done to the boulder to an enemy youkai as he simultaneously avoided its counterattacks.

He stepped up to the top half of the boulder, inspecting it closely, searching for even the slightest uneven patch on its cut surface. His golden eyes narrowed with intensity. A small, nearly black mineral within the granite was sticking out by about three millimeters near the edge of the cut. The claws of his right hand began to glow a sickly green.

In the blink of an eye, the boulder half fell into five pieces.

"That was awesome, Seisou!"

Sesshoumaru spun, his silks whipping around him. The child only smiled, her brilliantly clear golden eyes watching him in adoration. He knew full well that she could pronounce his name correctly by now, but he had not the heart to demand of her the same respect everyone else was expected to show him.

"Mai, haven't I told you before not to follow me to the training grounds?"

"But I like to watch..," the girl pouted. Sighing, he walked toward the small girl and lifted her until they were eye to eye.

"Watching is one thing, but if you happen to be hiding behind my next target, I might accidentally hurt you."

"I wouldn't have to hide if you'd let me watch in the first place.." Her stoic older brother's face cracked into a grin.

"You're right, Mai. You've outsmarted me." Mai giggled as he propped her small form against himself, holding her with just his left arm. "So just this once, I'll let you watch."

"You'll do a trick for me?" she gasped.

"I do no _tricks_, Mai. The things I practice are battle skills," he corrected. "Now, pick a target."

"Um.." She glanced all around her, idly chewing the nail of her index finger, which would not harden into a claw for another year or two. "How about .. Ah!" she exclaimed suddenly, whipping her finger from her mouth and pointing off to the right, "that tree there!"

Still rooted to the spot, Sesshoumaru concentrated his youki in his right hand, once again forming his energy whip. In less than a second he lopped off a large branch from the tree and, before it hit the ground, retracted the whip, sped towards the airborne branch, and sliced to bits its leaves with his claws, sending the pieces flying around Mai and himself like confetti. His young sister laughed and tried to catch the raining leaf bits as the branch finally hit the ground.

"Hey, Seisou..," she began a moment later.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering.. If you're practicing for battle, then why don't you use a sword like Father does?"

"Father says I must perfect my natural abilities before ever training with a weapon."

"Why?"

"Training exclusively with weapons would make me vulnerable. I would be dependent on them in battle, and if the weapon was lost, I would be helpless. This way, I can depend on my own strength, using a weapon only to complement it."

"Okay.. I think I understand.." Sesshoumaru smiled fondly at the girl. She really was too young to worry about such things. Their father had already decreed that her training was not to begin until she was at least six - and that was just over two years away.

"If your curiosity is satisfied, I'll cut my training short and we'll head back to the dens. I'm sure Mother is looking for you."

"Aww.." Mai whined.

"Will you come willingly if I promise to play whatever game you like when we get there?" The girl's already bright eyes lit up even more as she began to lightly bounce up and down in the crook of his arm.

"Really, Seisou? You mean it?" The slight nod of his head was enough to send her into a small fit of laughter and clapping.

"But," he began, "you have to promise that you won't follow me to training anymore without me knowing."

"Does that mean I can come if I ask first?"

"Perhaps," he conceded with a sigh.

"Okay, I promise!"

"Good," he said, picking leaves with his free hand from the soft white hair that hung loosely around her shoulders and then brushing the remaining ones from her pale yellow and purple kimono as he began to walk.

"Can we fly back? Please?"

"All right," he said with a breathy chuckle, "I suppose we can." Mai laughed with joy as she watched the swirling cloud forming around her brother's feet, lifting them up from the ground and high above the trees.

The normally talkative girl quieted as the two of them flew, reaching out a curious hand to touch the lower clouds. Sesshoumaru smiled to himself. By the time she was old enough to begin training, she would be developing her own powers and would no longer need her older brother to fly her around. He was curious to know if she would inherit the same powers as he. His father was certainly more endowed with youkai power than he was - his young sister could very well surpass him if Inutaishou's genes prevailed - but then, she might take after their mother instead, having few powers but enough skill with those few to hold her own against much more powerful creatures.

Despite this curiosity, however, Sesshoumaru was reluctant to admit to himself that Mai would not always be the innocent child she now was, clinging close to her admired older brother with no sense of the dangers of the world, but with games and natural wonders like flowers and clouds instead on her mind. A great part of him dreaded the day that innocence would leave her, the day she became secretive and bitter like him - the day she discovered the corruption that threatened to tear their family apart. She would have to hold that truth within her, just as he did, just as their mother did, and never tell another soul. Mai truly amazed him at times - the way she always told everyone what was on her mind, simply because she had not yet learned adult restraint. That freedom had been stolen away from him long ago - he couldn't bear to imagine such a fate for her, though he knew he could not protect her from it. She would not remain a child forever…

"Seisou, what's that?" Ridding his head of the wandering thoughts, he gazed below them at the area Mai was pointing to. A mass of bodies moved as one up one of the many hills that surrounded the dens.

"Those aren't… the males, are they?" she asked him tentatively. He snapped his eyes back to her.

"What do you mean?"

"The males all went out hunting a little while after you left for training.."

"What! All of them went?" Sesshoumaru demanded.

"I think so.."

"Idiots!" he growled. "Those aren't the males. There are far too many of them for that."

"Then what are they?"

"They're an army, Mai," he replied, holding her tightly as he doubled his speed, "and they're heading straight for the dens."

Miharu, standing outside their den in the cliff-side, waved to her children as they began to descend. She ran up to her son as he touched the ground, embracing the small girl in his arms.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Mai! Don't tell me you followed Sesshoumaru to training again!" she exclaimed.

"Mother, there's an army headed this way," Sesshoumaru interrupted. "They'll top the south hill any minute." Miharu might have dropped her daughter if he were not still holding onto her.

"What? That's… that's impossible! I would have smelled them!" she stuttered.

"They're traveling downwind. No doubt they planned it so."

"But the men are all out hunting! The only ones here other than the women and children are the two elders!"

"They may well have planned for that also," he said, pushing Mai into his mother's arms. "Take her inside and hide her, quickly!"

Sesshoumaru sped along the perimeter of the dens, warning everyone he met to hide their children and prepare for battle, but even he was not fast enough. As the women were scrambling to warn others and round up all the children that had been playing outside, a thunderous roar sounded from the top of the south hill. Sesshoumaru spun around to see a humongous panther youkai, of a size rivaling his father's inu form, standing atop the hill, surrounded by his fellows in their humanoid forms. He recognized the giant as the centuries-old leader of the panther tribe - he had entered into battle with Inutaishou several times in recent years in attempt to gain territory. The women screamed along with their frightened children and ran in panic to their dens as Sesshoumaru hurried back to his. With all of the tribe's warriors gone, the best thing he could do now was defend his own family and hope the women and elders could hold their own.

With their leader's command, the panthers swarmed down the hill like locusts, countless in number, and spread out to every den and hiding place in groups of ten or twenty. The female inuyoukai stood before the dens where their children were hiding, just as Sesshoumaru stood with his mother before their own. All along the tribe's cliff-side home the women were changing into their more powerful inu forms, though they were nearly half the size of the males, Sesshoumaru's form being only slightly larger because of his young age - but the panthers were overwhelming. Four women fell prey to them before they had even begun to grow, and three others were killed in mid-transformation. The rest fought as best they could, but the agile panthers dodged their attacks and even acted as decoys for organized groups of attackers - and Sesshoumaru and Miharu, with their central den, were right in the middle of all of it.

He could have easily knocked all of his attackers senseless with a single swipe of his paw, but the panthers were too swift for the large inu. They leapt onto him, hanging from his legs, back, and even from his ears and the back of his neck, not doing any major damage but spilling blood nevertheless. They were well prepared for the poisonous saliva, those on the ground avoiding the space beneath his mouth, and those attacking him latching onto places his mouth could not reach without risk of exposing his throat. His mother was not faring much better, nor were the few females and the elder he could see in his peripheral vision. The elder, largest of all the inu present, actually seemed to be having a worse time at fighting off the panthers. Despite his age, the former warrior was skilled - it was his size that seemed to hinder him. The small humanoid panthers darted all about him, easily dodging his attacks with movements much quicker than his size allowed him to make. Even in the more deadly inu form, it was all he could do to defend himself - surely, then, the rest of them could not effectively protect those hiding within the dens for long.

Sure of his reasoning, Sesshoumaru returned to his humanoid form, throwing his attackers to the ground as the bulk they had latched themselves onto disappeared. Before most of them could get up, he had readied his energy whip and cut them through, simultaneously attacking those that had been in front of him with the claws of his other hand. Leaping over a pair of corpses, he called back his whip and attacked with his dokkasou three of the panthers that were assailing his mother. The rest of the group that had targeted her were momentarily distracted, and Miharu took the opportunity to take on her humanoid form. As before, the attackers fell from the transforming youkai and were open to attack. The claws of the mother and son soon were stained with the blood of all the nearby panthers, and the ground was littered with their bodies.

However, they were not so successful for long. Many inu around them had already been slain, and the panthers who had not gone to investigate the now unguarded dens were coming for Sesshoumaru and his mother, as the panther leader stood watching and directing from his vantage point atop the hill.

At least twenty of the panthers, stained with the blood of the dead inuyoukai, surrounded Sesshoumaru such that he could not attack one without falling victim to the blows of the others, and all he killed were quickly replaced by more of their fellows who, having just killed yet another of his tribesmen, had come to join the new battle. Every now and then he was able to catch a glimpse of his mother in the short moment he had between killing one panther and being attacked by another, and he could see she was not able to hold her own as well as he was - she was skilled with the dokkasou attack, but had no far reaching weapons like his energy whip. The panthers were able to get closer to her than they did him, and he could smell her blood, even amongst all the rest of the blood that had been spilled around him.

As the panther before him mockingly dodged his claws, another sliced into his left side, this one a female with short blue hair. With his left hand he struck out at her, still trying with his right to hold the other at bay, but she leaped up and out of the way. As his claws at last reached the bothersome male, the female returned to the earth, digging her claws into his shoulders and kicking into his back with both her feet as she fell in an attempt to break his spine. Sesshoumaru, however, merely lost his footing and found himself instead pinned to the ground beneath her weight.

The other panthers surrounded him until he could see nothing other than their legs and feet, clawing simple flesh wounds into him and laughing as they did so. They were playing with him as their beastly counterparts did with mice or rabbits..

Suddenly, over their laughter, he heard the loud thud of a body hitting the ground to his right, though he could not see it, and the accompanying grunt was undoubtedly his mother's. Desperation fueling him, he managed to free his right arm, which had been trapped beneath him, and instantly he sliced off the legs of the panthers before him at the knees. As they fell, a space opened up through which he could see the other circle of panthers standing to his right - Miharu's silver hair was pooled on the ground at their feet. He struggled against the female that still pinned him down, even as she dug her claws deeper and deeper into his shoulders. He jerked from side to side in attempt to throw her, but to no avail - even his energy whip could not touch her as she managed to dodge without losing her hold on him.

Miharu's loud cry of pain pierced Sesshoumaru's ears, cutting through the raucous laughter of the panthers.

"Mother!" he yelled, but this only made the despicable creatures laugh harder. His need to protect his mother and his escalating hatred of the panthers somehow combined in that moment to give him one last burst of strength, with which he was finally able to push himself off the ground and throw the female from his back. Eyes burning red, he dashed towards his mother, ripping out with his bare hands the throats of those in his way, but not quickly enough. Seeing the attacker coming, the panthers that were holding Miharu down knew their fun was over and quickly finished the job, their victim letting out one last agonizing cry as they tore out her entrails.

Slaying the last panther that stood between himself and his mother, Sesshoumaru was just in time to witness her death - and a mere second too late to prevent it.

He became almost paralyzed at that moment; his anger drained away, replaced by a terrible empty numbness. He could do nothing but stare into the deep golden eyes that mirrored his own - the eyes that remained open, staring at him as if her soul still lingered somehow, as if she could still see him - and at the face that bore no peace, but retained the grimace of her final pain even in death. He heard nothing around him for that brief, eternal moment - it was only the sudden movement of the remaining panthers that stirred him from his trance.

They were moving toward the den.

As he realized this, his senses came rushing back and forced him to follow them, though his body was torn, bleeding, and sluggish. Pure, unsullied fear pushed him forward, sustained him, refused to let him surrender the fight, and through it he overpowered the panthers who stood by his den's entrance, killed in one swipe the one who had infiltrated it as far as the main chamber, and sped to his sister's room. Fear pushed back thoughts of his mother and forced all his focus on getting to Mai. She was still so young.. too young to defend herself…

He reached the entrance to her room, but could not pass its threshold. His legs seemed to go numb the instant he arrived. and soon they simply gave out beneath him. Sesshoumaru fell to his knees, breath hitched in his throat, and felt his heart stop cold in his chest.

Two panthers squatted before him, drenched in the same blood that stained the earthen walls of the small room, leaning over a tiny body. But what lie on the floor between them was not Mai - it was nothing more than a lifeless pile of mutilated flesh…

* * *

Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open as he caught a breath at last. What he saw before him was only the simple thatch roof of a hut.

Gathering his wits about him and remembering where he was, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and wiped the sweat from his brow. His abdomen stung slightly with pain as he moved, but he did not care.

As he forced himself to banish the images of the dream from his mind, his thoughts instead latched onto Naraku. It was he who had wounded him, he reasoned, and without the wound he would not need sleep, and without sleep he would not have to face the memories that plagued his dreams. All of it was because of him.. He looked forward to the day he left the village, not only because he would be rid of the humans and his hanyou half-brother, but because leaving meant he could go back to his wandering lifestyle - his sleepless lifestyle.

He looked across the room, where the hanyou and the monk were still sleeping. He was somewhat surprised that Inuyasha had not been awakened, as he had been keeping himself on alert. Perhaps, Sesshoumaru briefly wondered, he had actually grown used to having him around - learned to trust, at least a little, that he would not harm any of the humans so long as he was here to heal.

The hut was still quite dark, but he refused to sleep any longer that night, and so decided he would venture outside until the others awoke. His wound did not pain him a great deal, and he had always found the night air somewhat soothing - at any rate, it would certainly calm his nerves more than lying in the hut and waiting out the oppressive silence of its sleeping residents. Noiselessly he rose from his bed, not bothering to pull on even the inner layer of his haori, and left the hut.

Ah-Uhn, hitched to a post just beyond the door flap, made a throaty grunt as his master walked by, but with his nod of recognition the two-headed dragon beast fell silent again. The greater part of the sky still was dark, but far in the east the slightest hints of dawn could already be seen. All the village was quiet - not even the farmers and field hands had risen for their chores. Sesshoumaru walked as far as the edge of a slight ridge, perhaps a hundred feet from the hut, and sat at the base of the large tree that stood there, simply watching as the colors of the sky lightened and changed above the distant, snowy mountains and the fields and rice paddies that stretched out below him.

* * *

Naraku watched the taiyoukai settle beneath the tree with great distaste.

"He's alive," he muttered to himself.

"Yes, Master Naraku," Kanna replied in her quiet monotone, "and he resides in the same village as the target." Naraku grew pensively quiet for a few moments, watching the image in the silver mirror that the ghostly white girl held in her small hands. The saimyoushou hovering around Kanna buzzed impatiently.

"As long as he lives," he thought aloud, "the plan cannot be put into motion." Reaching out with a clawed hand from the mismatched pile of youkai parts that was his current body, he pulled toward him a large cask from the corner of the dungeon-like room. As he removed the lid, glowing red vapors began to spill out. Plunging his arm into the cask, Naraku pulled forth a red, fleshy orb.

"Come," he commanded one of the saimyoushou. When the massive bee flew to its master, the orb was pressed against its body and absorbed into it. The saimyoushou glowed red for a moment, but afterwards looked no different from the others.

"Do you have a plan to get rid of him, Master Naraku?"

"Yes, Kanna, quite a simple one," he replied as he placed the lid back on the cask. "If Sesshoumaru will not die by my hands, then I shall have Inuyasha take care of him for me…"

* * *

AN: Okay... so it took more than the intended week, but this chapter is a lot longer than most of my other ones... maybe even the longest of all. First of all, I had some terrible writer's block going into the battle scene. Second, I absolutely and completely SUCK at writing battle scenes. (if anyone out there has battle tips, please tell me..) Doubly screwed, and I still finished it in a little over a week. For me, that's actually pretty good... And that's why I can never be a professional writer. I just can't work with deadlines, even self-set ones. Sigh.

It still needs a lot of work, if you ask me, but I've already altered the battle scene three times... And there's no way I'm rewriting _anything_ again. It took me this long just to make it somewhat acceptable. Also, I haven't had as much time to edit and revise as I usually do, so it sucks all the more for it, but I'll probably come back to it later and fix it up a bit. For now though, I feel like stabbing it, and I never want to look at the damned chapter again.

Needless to say, the next update is gonna be **more than a week **in coming. I need to get my brain off this fic for a while.. _(falls out of chair and passes out on the floor) _Until then, feel free to review, even if that means bitching about how bad the battle scene is. The **RR&R **policy (read, review, & recommend) still stands. Authoresses are often motivated to get off their lazy butts and write if they get reviews.. -hint hint-


	15. Taiyoukai Sunrise

AN: It's a miracle!_ (bows to my muse) _Yes, this is the **whole **chapter! Yay! And I wrote the second half of it in a single day - a single morning, even!_ (dances around) _Okay, there's just one drawback - the promised action scene? Well, that's gonna be next chapter, sorry.. I wasn't expecting the set-up for the action scene to take up so much room, but the action scene will probably end up being pretty longanyway_ (wonders if that's a good thing or not..) _This chapter is six pages as it is, and that's in size 10 font.. My chapters just get longer and longer.. Looking back at the first ones, I can't believe I thought some of _them_ were lengthy, heh. I swear, though, if I keep moving the plot along so slowly, this thing will turn into a friggin' novel. Ugh. Stupid anal retentive muse.. she's just a stickler for details. That's how everything I write ends up way too long, because she won't let me leave out any tiny things.. And she's not great with that whole "concise wording" concept either, as you all have probably noticed. I know my demonic "creative writing" teacher did.. Grr.. Just a sidenote - never ever EVER take a class with the word "creative" in the name or class description..

Anyway, the next chapter will be up.. um.. hopefully within a month? School keeps stealing away most of my time, and unfortunately action scenes require a lot of writing and editing time, so in that sense, the hiatus continues..

And... don't bother to ask why I thought of tequila when I was trying to come up with a chapter name.. Heh. I think it works well, though. Yay for random bubbles of thought!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters except for Maina, Miharu, and Mai.. and at least one more before this thing ends. Seriously, I would hate to get sued over stealing anime characters for a little fanfiction hobby.. I'm holding out for an illegally-downloaded-music-files lawsuit... _(laughs at the government)_

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Chapter Fifteen - Taiyoukai Sunrise

Quickly but quietly, Maina padded into Kaede's storage room. Pushing aside a stack of mixing bowls and a sack of dried medicinal herbs, she sighed with some relief. Sesshoumaru's armor and his two swords were still stowed in their hiding place. If he had all his strength back, he should have had no trouble sensing the strong aura of the Toukijin, and yet he had not come for it, therefore he mustn't have gone very far. She hurried back to the main room, slipped on her sandals, and pushed aside the door flap, taking a quick look back at the sleeping Inuyasha and Miroku before setting foot outside.

As the goddess stepped into the light of dawn, Ah-Uhn was disturbed from his briefly resumed sleep, but any irritation he felt at this second awakening was dispelled when his two heads rose to behold the familiar hair that shone with the reds and oranges of fall leaves in the morning sun. He cooed affectionately at her, an odd sound when made by a voice so rough as a dragon's, and was rewarded with a kind smile and a friendly pat for each of his heads.

"So he left you behind as well," Maina whispered to the dragon-steed. "Surely you saw him leave the hut - do you know where he went?" With a grunt, Ah motioned toward the half-risen sun.

"Thank you!" she said, waving as she began to jog eastward.

The left corner of Sesshoumaru's mouth raised ever slightly as he listened to Maina speaking to Ah-Uhn, but he decided he would wait until she was close to make himself known. There was worry in her voice - even in a faraway whisper he could hear it. What was there for her to worry over? The village was quiet, so certainly she wasn't worried that he'd begun killing the humans. Could it be she was worried because of his wound, even though she, having been the sole person treating it, knew that it was almost fully healed? For a being so old, one who had been alive well before even his grandfather's birth, her actions at times made less sense to him even than Rin's.

He sat quite still, hidden by the large tree, listening to her approaching footsteps as well as gauging her distance by the strength of her scent. Though sullied by living among the humans for the past four days, there was no mistaking it. Even as he sat beneath a tree, Maina's scent, nearly identical to that of her forest, was easily distinguishable. What was it about her forest that set it apart so from the rest of the world? Its plants differed even from those just outside its boundaries - was it the barrier's protection that was responsible? Did it protect the forest so well that it actually created within itself a separate ecosystem, allowing its plants to remain the same even as those outside evolved into subspecies, or perhaps even causing its plants to evolve more quickly than those outside, as all the plants were allowed to survive and reproduce rather than the strongest alone?

The crunch of leaves about a meter behind him brought Sesshoumaru's thoughts back to reality.

"Maina," he said impassively, smirking when he heard her quiet sigh of relief.

"Sesshoumaru, what are you doing out here?" she asked, stepping in front of him. He only smirked up at her from his spot on the ground. He wore only his hakama, his torso left bare save the bandage wrapped around his stomach, with his left leg outstretched and his right bent up, serving as an armrest. Maina squatted before him so that she was at his eye level. "You're supposed to be resting for an entire week." His smirk remained - her scolding held more relief than anger.

"If you were in my position, you'd have been sneaking out of doors the first day."

"Hmmph," huffed the goddess, though she offered no protest. She eyed his bandage for a moment, her face softening. "Does your wound still pain you?" she asked quietly.

"Only if I move too suddenly."

"That's good.." She turned her eyes to the ground, seemingly interested by the dead, dry leaves littered about. Normally Sesshoumaru would have been content to drop a conversation thus, but the goddess' silence and pensive expression troubled him on some level - and in that same corner of his mind was a strong suggestion of what he might do to rectify that. He assured himself that the feeling was merely a product of hormones, or some similar thing.

"Maina.." Her attention and her eyes snapped back to him, and Sesshoumaru caught himself, for a brief instant, staring into those odd depths of silver and blue interspersed among the naturesque greens and browns. It had to be hormones.

"Yes?"

"Sit with me." Maina quirked up an eyebrow, likely something she had unconsciously picked up from him.

"I _am_ sitting with you.."

"No, you are sitting in front of me, as you have been for the past four days," he told her, gently grasping and tugging on her wrist. With a smile and a breathy chuckle, she settled between his legs, somewhat leaning against his right one with her own legs draped over his left.

"Much better.," Sesshoumaru said quietly. Laying her head between his neck and shoulder, Maina watched the purples and pinks of the sky fading as the sun rose almost completely from its resting place beyond the mountains. Silence reigned once more, but it was a pleasant one.

As the last traces of dawn disappeared, Sesshoumaru's lone arm encircled the goddess.

"How long has it been," he began softly, "since we spent so much time together without…"

"Since before our first time, I believe," she laughed.

"I thought as much.."

"If you intend to rectify that, I suggest we do so somewhere more private."

"I meant nothing by it. I was merely curious.."

"Of course," Maina said with a sly grin which, unbeknownst to her, as her eyes remained focused on the sky, was perfectly mirrored on Sesshoumaru's face. Maina fell silent, but it was not for several more minutes that Sesshoumaru turned his eyes from the sky and again looked upon her.

To his amusement, he discovered that she had fallen asleep. The humans, he knew, usually did not wake until at least an hour after sunrise, so certainly he could allow her sleep for just a short while..

He watched her in silence, idly combing his fingers through her hair. Her steady breathing, the warmth of her body against him, and even her scent served to calm his every nerve, though for the life of him he could not say why.

It was not long before Sesshoumaru, too, succumbed to sleep - a peaceful sleep of the kind usually found only when he laid in their private hut in her forest, a sleep that was not haunted by memories, but that was deep and dreamless..

* * *

Kagome was awakened by Shippo's small feet kicking her side, though his kicks were more like repetitive pokes. Opening her heavy eyes upon the kit, she saw that he was still asleep, his eyes tightly shut. He reminded her of a dog trying to run in its sleep.

_'Poor Shippo,' _she thought, _'he must be dreaming about the Thunder Brothers chasing after him again..' _

Taking a quick glance around at the partially sunlit room, she knew it was still a bit early, but decided she may as well get up - perhaps she would have time to study a bit before the others arose; after all, her test was fast approaching. Carefully sliding out of her sleeping bag, Kagome moved Shippo to the center and tucked the blanket around him. She gently kissed his soft, fuzzy forehead, which seemed to calm him, as his eyes relaxed and his legs stopped moving so quickly.

She moved silently toward the door, stepping lightly between the still sleeping Sango and Kaede. Only when she had passed them and was sure they had not awoken did she notice the empty bedding near the room's doorway. Kagome unconsciously raised an eyebrow. Maina had been the last to awaken every morning since her arrival, but suddenly she was the first. Where could she have gone so early?

A few more steps found Inuyasha and Miroku still sleeping, but Sesshoumaru's bed was empty. A sour feeling took root in the pit of her stomach. Had they left sometime during the night? Maina had told her yesterday that Sesshoumaru's wounds were nearly healed, but Kagome knew better than anyone how shaken Maina had been on the day of the battle - she was sure the goddess would not allow him to leave until he was fully healed. But, perhaps they had not left together; perhaps Sesshoumaru had escaped, thinking himself healed enough to do so, and Maina had awoken sometime later and gone after him. But if that was the case, wouldn't Maina have alerted the others? Powerful as she was, she certainly didn't have the tracking abilities of Inuyasha or Kirara, and all of them, even Inuyasha, eventually, had welcomed her into their company. Surely she knew that she could count on their help if she needed it..

If nothing else, wouldn't she have wanted to say goodbye?

Kagome stood by the door flap, unsure of whether she should wake the others and search them out or just let them go. Kagome believed that Maina was their friend, but perhaps that didn't mean all that much. After all, they weren't allies, but two separate groups of allies - Sesshoumaru and Maina were allies, as were Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and herself, but depending on the half-brothers' moods, they could be two enemy camps or temporary allies against Naraku. Perhaps the idea of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru putting aside their differences was just a pipe dream after all..

_'Putting aside..'_

Kagome grew stiff as her thoughts came to a sudden halt. Quietly hitting her forehead with the base of her palm, she turned toward Sesshoumaru's abandoned bedding.

_'Kagome, you idiot! That furry thing of Sesshoumaru's is still beside his bed! He wouldn't have just left it here! They're probably right outside the hut somewhere!'_

Her temporary idiocy was confirmed when, as she stepped outside the hut, one of Ah-Uhn's heads lifted slightly to greet her. She could have sworn that odd dragon creature looked quite frustrated before the awakened head lowered again, but she waved it off as another product of the stupid side of her brain.

As she pondered where to begin looking for them, she noticed that the large maple tree nearby had acquired an oddly white above-ground root. As she walked toward it, she both scolded herself for thinking that a pair of legs sticking out of a white sleeping kimono looked like a root and thanked the foolish thought for drawing her attention.

As she approached the tree, a third white-clad leg became visible, this one Sesshoumaru's, but she could hear no talking. She was careful not to make noise, as it would be all the more noticeable to the taiyoukai's sensitive ears if she made a sound when all else was silent.

Peeking around the tree at them, Kagome was overwhelmed by the little scene.

The two of them sat sleeping, Sesshoumaru nestled between the tree's roots and Maina cradled between his legs with his arm draped around her. The early morning sun kissed the couple with its soft light, bringing a slight glow to their white garments and a platinum shine to Sesshoumaru's hair. Maina's hair had spilled over her shoulder like a loose shawl, shining with autumnal golds and deep reds. Her head rested near his right shoulder, and his cheek in turn rested lightly upon the crown of her head. And both of them looked so peaceful.. Sesshoumaru had always carried a look of cold indifference, and Maina had maintained a solemn sadness for the majority of her time in the village, so the calmness of their faces as they slept all but entranced Kagome.

Despite her common complaints about its weight, Kagome found herself wishing she had a camera stowed away in her massive yellow pack. It would have made such a perfect picture..

Until Kagome shifted her weight onto her left foot, snapping the twig that happened to be beneath it.

Kagome felt her face flush as Sesshoumaru's eyes fluttered open and stared coldly up at her.

"Um, sorry..," she whispered. "I just saw that you were gone and.."

"Quiet," came the whispered command. Already a bit flustered, Kagome simply complied. She wasn't exactly eager to receive whatever reprimand Sesshoumaru might give her for intruding on his privacy, but what could she do about it now? She stood silently as Sesshoumaru spared a lengthy glance at the still sleeping goddess.

"Go back to the hut and stall the hanyou," he told her at last. Kagome blinked incredulously. Could it be that he wasn't angry at her?

Sesshoumaru let out an irritated sigh. The human girl was utterly useless.

"I will wake Maina in a moment, and then we shall return to the old miko's hut. Until then, keep Inuyasha from tearing the village apart to find me," he explained.

"Oh, I get it," Kagome said with a nod, though she was still confused over his leniency. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at her.

"Go."

"Huh? Oh, right!" she whispered, shaking her head and hurrying back to the hut.

"Humans..," Sesshoumaru muttered.

* * *

"So this is the ramen I keep hearing about?"

"Yup, in its full glory: styrofoam cup, some dehydrated vegetables, and even a few rare and tiny pieces of shrimp," Kagome said with sarcastic emphasis, stirring the contents of her cup around with her chopsticks to show it off. Maina picked up a single long, wavy noodle with her own chopsticks.

"Ah, these are the same noodles you added to that chicken dish at dinner the other day.."

"That's right. They're really versatile.."

"And Inuyasha can't seem to get enough of them..," Maina said with a sly grin.

"That's for sure," Kagome laughed.

"So this is all for today's lunch, then?"

"A cup of ramen is more filling than you might think!"

"Hmm.." Maina stared contemplatively at the steam escaping from the row of cups. "If this is all we're having, then we don't need trays or plates, right?"

"Right. You just eat the stuff right out of the cup." Maina spun toward Kagome, flashing a pleasant smile.

"Since our lunch is portable, how about we eat outdoors?"

"Oh, that's a great idea! We can have a picnic!" Kagome exclaimed, clapping her hands together. Suddenly, her smile straightened into a thoughtful line. "What about Sesshoumaru though?"

"His wounds are healing excellently - there's no problem with him venturing outside at this point."

"Uh, yeah, I know that part," Kagome mumbled, hoping she hadn't started blushing. Maina hadn't found out about her stumbling upon the two of them that morning, and every one else had luckily remained asleep until after Sesshoumaru had returned to the hut with her. Nevertheless, Kagome felt a bit awkward about the incident. "What I mean is, I doubt Sesshoumaru will want to sit around with Inuyasha, not to mention us humans, for an outdoor lunch.."

"Don't fret, Kagome, I can handle him. Between me working to keep Sesshoumaru's temper in check and you doing the same with Inuyasha, I'm sure we can keep the peace long enough to eat lunch."

"I guess you're right, Maina.. After all, they've been eating in the same room for four days without killing each other, so maybe preventing a fight in a closer sitting arrangement won't be _too_ difficult.."

"Exactly. So tell me, do you think the ramen has cooked long enough now?'

"It only takes three minutes; it should be perfect by now!" Kagome said, peeking beneath the lid of one cup just to be sure. "All right, help yourself to a cup, Maina. I'm going to tell the others it's ready."

"So we're not playing waitresses today?"

"Are you kidding? I can't balance a bunch of full cups of hot soup with just two arms!" she laughed. Maina chuckled and peeled the lid from the two nearest cups, plunging her chopsticks into one and grabbing a clean pair for Sesshoumaru. It was enough work persuading the taiyoukai to eat the humans' cooking - she wasn't about to tell him to go and get the food himself.

* * *

It was beyond awkward.

Somehow, the mismatched group of four humans, three youkai, a hanyou, and a goddess, thrown together by nearly mind-boggling circumstances of fate, and even time travel, had managed to sit together in a fairly close circle for a picnic lunch, and as of yet no blood had been spilled.

Unfortunately, no words had been spilled either..

Nine pairs of eyes, brown ones, gold ones, green ones, red ones, and a certain pair of oddly mottled ones darted about nervously, all waiting for someone to speak.

Both Kagome's and Maina's eyes shifted nervously from Sesshoumaru to Inuyasha and back again. Sesshoumaru glared disinterestedly at his cup of ramen, stealing an occasional glance at Inuyasha or Maina. Inuyasha stared at Sesshoumaru, every minute or so sending an annoyed look to Kagome for having talked him into this. Miroku, who had taken a seat beside Sesshoumaru, as he tolerated him above the other humans, stole nervous peeks at the taiyoukai, trying to see if he were angry or not, but having no luck at seeing through his perpetual stoicism. Sango watched the half-brothers as well as their unofficial partners - she could see that they were keeping constant guard to prevent any violence, but it seemed to her that Inuyasha was the more dangerous one at the moment, glaring in the way he was. Sesshoumaru seemed disinterested in his despised half-brother's rudeness, however, and was politely and indiscreetly eating from his cup, which alone required a raised tray, as he had no second hand to hold it. Even Kirara was wary of the tension in the air, though, keeping close to Sango and looking around as if waiting for the impending battle to begin.

Kaede and Shippo looked to one another every once in a while, exchanging glances of stifled amusement at their friends' anxious faces.

Kagome, always the most friendly and peaceful influence of the group, was inevitably the one to finally break the ice.

"Uh.. So, it's a really pretty day today, isn't it? It's not too hot or too cold, and there's a nice cool breeze..," she began nervously.

"Yes, it's a perfect day to be outdoors," Sango added.

"And.. It's so nice to have a meal out here," Maina joined in shakily. "It's quite a relief after spending so much time inside, don't you think, Sesshoumaru?"

He turned his eyes on her, raising a questioning eyebrow. He hadn't expected her to drag him out here to eat with the hanyou and his friends, of course, but to try to bring him into a conversation with them as well? It was absurd. With a breathy "hmmph," he turned his attention back to the ramen, though he really didn't care for it - it was merely something to look at besides Inuyasha. No doubt the idiot would draw Tetsusaiga in an instant if Sesshoumaru returned his irritating glare..

Maina kept her narrowed eyes on Sesshoumaru. This whole thing had been her idea, though only Kagome knew that, and it was therefore her fault if it worsened the tensions between the half-brothers. She had to lighten the situation somehow, and fast. Perhaps she could... No, that would be suicide! But, then again, it might just be stupid enough to work..

"You know, Sesshoumaru, it wouldn't kill you to stop being such a grouch for a while," she muttered, just loud enough for everyone to hear - that much was confirmed when everyone stopped eating and breathing all at once.

Sesshoumaru's chopsticks fell from his hand and clattered onto the tray as he turned a death glare on Maina. She confidently glared right back. Across the circle, Shippo began to inch his way behind Kagome.

"Is that so?" Sesshoumaru said at last.

"Yes. You've been a horrible guest, you know. You could try to be a bit friendlier." Sesshoumaru said nothing, merely cracking his knuckles in the space between them, showing off his claws. By this point, Kirara had taken after Shippo's example and hidden behind Sango, her nose alone peeking out.

"For instance," Maina continued, "you could start by complimenting Kagome on the lunch she prepared for us."

Kagome would have pleaded that there was no need for compliments, but at the moment it seemed fear, or perhaps Kirara, had her tongue..

"She did a really good job with these noodles, surely you agree?" Maina pulled a noodle from her cup for emphasis, twisting it around her finger. Sesshoumaru only maintained his glare. He knew she had to be going _somewhere_ with this, he just didn't know…

_splat!_

Gasps of shock escaped from the humans and Shippo - Inuyasha, however, wore a goofy smile as he tried to stifle the belly-laugh that threatened to erupt from him.

With the same eerily calm manner he kept during battle, Sesshoumaru grasped the offending ramen noodle between two of his claws and peeled the slimy, wet thing off of his forehead. Maina's hitherto impassive face broke into a wide grin as the rest of the group braced themselves for the shockwaves of battle.

Sesshoumaru's face twisted into a smirk that spoke of devious intentions. The others watched in wonder as he dipped the noodle into his own cup, bringing it back out dripping wet with broth.

_splat!_

"Ah!" Maina squeaked, frantically pulling the fabric of her top outward and fishing the wet noodle out from between her breasts. Sesshoumaru allowed a few breathy chuckles to escape his throat. Maina threw the noodle to the ground angrily, glaring at the taiyoukai's amused expression.

"I believe the humans have an appropriate saying for such a situation," Sesshoumaru began, his sly smirk subtly growing into a sly grin.

"A saying about throwing noodles down a lady's clothing?" she growled.

"They say, Maina, that turnabout is fair play.."

Maina's angry scowl quickly became a smile against her will. Laughing, she playfully smacked at Sesshoumaru's arm.

The others were simply too shocked to laugh, even Inuyasha. How could they have possibly laughed? Sesshoumaru had suddenly developed a sense of humor right before their eyes- but didn't the heartless, cold youkai who made attempts on all of their lives whenever he felt like it think that _killing people _was humorous? To put it simply, the whole thing was more creepy than funny to them..

Kaede raised slightly a solitary eyebrow, smiling to herself. It seemed her suspicions about the couple did indeed have some merit..

Suddenly, the rare and almost playful expression on Sesshoumaru's face was gone. He tilted his head up, eyes narrowed, a growl beginning to rumble deep within his chest. He moved his head from side to side in an almost birdlike fashion, listening for some unknown thing as his nose tested the air.

"What is it?" Maina asked.

"Naraku..," he snarled, fangs bared.

"Naraku, here? You're kidding, right..?" Kagome asked, though she knew as well as any of them that Sesshoumaru was not one to kid about such a thing, whether or not he'd grown a sense of humor..

"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to smell his stench too," Inuyasha mumbled, setting his ramen cup on the ground. Nearby, Kirara distanced herself from Sango and transformed in a blaze of fire to her larger battle form. Even Ah-Uhn, still hitched at the nearby hut, had noticed Naraku's scent by now - he pulled against his reigns, snarling menacingly at the sky.

Maina and the humans, however, could sense nothing of him, and the sky seemed just as harmless as it had been a moment before.

Sesshoumaru rose to his feet, facing north, watching the sky silently and diligently. He could not be sure what exactly this threat was - a puppet, a youkai incarnation, or Naraku himself. The only thing he knew was that it carried the scent of Naraku and it was coming at them fast.

Maina stood beside Sesshoumaru, already gathering power into her hands, readying herself to create a barrier if necessary. Miroku and Inuyasha soon followed suit, Miroku holding his shakujou in a defensive stance and Inuyasha keeping his hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. Kaede, Kagome, and Sango hurried to the hut, taking a protesting Shippo with them. If Naraku had really arrived, both old Kaede and Shippo needed to take shelter. Within seconds, Kagome and Sango returned to the others, having retrieved their weapons.

Sesshoumaru was confounded. He knew by the strengthening of the scent that their enemy was getting closer by the second, but even with his enhanced senses he could see _nothing_, nor could anyone else.

"Damnit, what the hell's going on here! Where is he?" Inuyasha yelled.

"I can sense a foreign youki, but it's not nearly as strong as Naraku's," Miroku observed.

"And I can't sense any jewel shards," Kagome added.

"This doesn't make any sense," Inuyasha growled in frustration. "I can smell him coming but I can't see a damned thing!"

"Perhaps Naraku is using some sort of barrier to hide himself, or whatever it is he's sent here..," Sango suggested.

"The invisibility barriers used by youkai and humans are far from perfect," Maina said. "If Naraku was using such a barrier, I would be able to see it."

"So, this thing has Naraku's scent and fairly strong youki, yet we cannot see it. It has no jewel shards, nor a barrier hiding it. Who, or what, could this foe possibly be?" Miroku pondered.

"Three black specks," Sesshoumaru stated softly.

"Huh!" Inuyasha and the humans said together.

"I see them!" Maina exclaimed. "Up there!"

Sooner than the others could make out the tiny dots in the sky, they grew into large, shapeless blobs, speeding toward the ground the group stood on like the rocket-propelled missiles of Kagome's time. The objects swooped above their heads a split second before impact - fast enough to create a shock wave that sent chunks of earth flying and knocked the humans from their feet. It was only after this that the attackers paused in their flight, hovering a couple of feet above Sesshoumaru. Raising himself up from the ground, Miroku gasped in both surprise and confusion at the sight of them.

"They're… saimyoushou?"

* * *

AN: Muahaha.. Cliffieness again! How I love leaving everyone hanging while I attempt to write the next chapter before 2006 arrives... 


	16. Attack of the Saimyoushou!

_(a long author's note this time.. you can ignore it if you wish... just consider it my celebration of the hiatus' end.. lol)_

YES! It's here, it's really really here after.. good grief, months of hiatus! The whole chapter is one **HUGE** battle sequence - not superfluously so, because every part was put in for a reason - that took these last two full weeks to write.. It just ended up being huge, nearly as long page-wise as the last chapter.. It took a hell of a lot longer to write than that one, though - not counting the hiatus, just the time I spent typing it.. Gah, battle scenes! Every time I try to write them I have to fight massive writer's block.. I can only write them at a rate of one or two small pieces per day, unless I'm feeling reeeeeeeeeally creative and productive (which luckily did happen, or else it would have never gotten done!). Domestic scenes are so much easier! The scene with all the girls in the kitchen, for instance, or my favorite scene of the whole story so far, the sunrise! (Maybe you'd call those the fanservice scenes? Heh..) I swear, when I write those, I go into a creative frenzy! I type for hours and can't seem to stop!

I'll say it again - I suck at battle scenes. My forte is the moment snapshot thing - a single moment or a fairly calm scene (one that doesn't involve moving around a lot).. something that stays constant long enough for me to really describe it. In battle scenes, my sense of time bothers me. (I tried using snapshot techniques on the key moments of the chapter, but I'm not sure if it really worked..) I can't write fast-moving scenes all that well.. I need sound effects or something to toss in. When the scene is fast, I still need to be able to describe things. I need to describe them better than in still ones, really - but the descriptions end up being longer in the reading of them than the events are. In a still moment, the long description flows with it.. The slowness reinforces the longness of the particular moment. I've seen writers do the same with action scenes - they use brevity beautifully, and the words read as quickly as the action should flow. And I simply CANNOT do that. I'm a perfectionist that can't get anything perfect.. so instead I try and describe every facet of whatever I can't say perfectly. And you guys know how I ramble. I'm doing it right now! Sigh.. action is not my friend. No matter how clearly I can see it in my head, I can't seem to ever do it justice when I try to describe it in words..

Okay.. Is anyone familiar with the statue of Laocoon and his sons being attacked by the twin serpents? If not, I'll just tell you that it's one of the most amazing statues I've ever seen - you look at it, and you feel Laocoon's pain, you see his emotions, his young sons' fear, and at the same time you see the action happening. Statue or not, I dare you to take a good look at it and _not _see the movement there. It's just an absolutely perfect snapshot of a battle scene - you can see all the details and emotion and everything that is portrayed in still moments, and yet you get a definite feel for the actions taking place. If I were an ancient sculpter, I would have made the kinds of statues that merely stand, the ones revered for their beauty and detail, their eerily human faces, and the amazing way that the clothing flows and hints at the body beneath. A still moment captured in marble rather than an action-packed moment captured in marble.

And yeah, if I were a sculpter back then, I would worship the ground that the sculpter of the Laocoon statue walked on..

Hopefully you guys will think higher of my battle scenes than I do.. Enjoy!

_(haha... I made an Inuyasha-episode-style chapter title this time.. sooo creative..)_

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Chapter Sixteen - Attack of the Saimyoushou!

"What are the saimyoushou doing here?" Kagome asked timidly.

"This isn't right at all," Miroku pondered aloud. "Naraku was badly injured in our last battle - normally he stays in hiding a while to build his power back up. Why would he try to provoke us so soon by sending his spies here?"

"I agree. Something's up..," Sango commented.

"Then let's just get rid of the something right now!" Inuyasha yelled, leaping into the air and swiping at Naraku's messengers. "SANKON TETSUSOU!"

But the saimyoushou dodged his claws, zipping out of the way with lightning speed and regrouping in their former position as Inuyasha landed.

"No way..," he mumbled. "Since when are these things so damned fast!"

The battle-ready group watched the hovering hell-insects curiously as they briefly turned toward each other and seemed to communicate something, as if coordinating their battle plan, just before they swooped down again, one flying at Miroku, another at Inuyasha, and the third at Sesshoumaru.

Miroku struck out with his shakujou only to have the insect mockingly dodge him; Sango joined the chase with her hiraikotsu as Kagome strung an arrow and waited for the creature to stay still enough for her to hit it, but neither of the women could strike it. The saimyoushou that had gone after Inuyasha dodged widely to avoid his more powerful demonic attacks, leading him farther away from the group. Even Sesshoumaru's speed could not match that of the insect that buzzed teasingly near him. Maina held her hands up, ready to throw a barrier around it, but she could do nothing as long as it continued to dart about so.

All at once, the saimyoushou left their targets. Sesshoumaru's insect flew straight up into the air, seeming to take on an observatory role, as Inuyasha's sped away and began to assail Maina. The insect that had initially targeted Miroku suddenly turned in its flight and made a beeline toward Sesshoumaru at a speed that more than topped its previous one, becoming nearly invisible as it flew.

Neither Sesshoumaru nor anyone else had even a full second to react as the rocketing saimyoushou slammed into the taiyoukai's back, latching itself upon his recently healed wound. The others, having been separated from him by the carefully planned attack, could only watch, horrified, as the insect ripped open both layers of Sesshoumaru's haori and his bandage with its monstrous mandibles. Sesshoumaru fell onto his hand and knees with a choked, painful cry as the creature tore open his skin and burrowed itself into his body.

* * *

Before he knew what had hit his back, the saimyoushou was tearing into the tender flesh of his newly healed wound. He had not even the time to cry out in pain - his voice left him almost immediately, cutting off the sound in his throat so that only a short, struggling note escaped. 

The moment his knees and palm hit the ground, his body was assailed with the intense pain of a thousand needles, but a mere second later, all feeling left him. He saw his hair fall over his shoulders; a lock of it lay across his hand, but he could not, for the life of him, feel it. In fact, he only knew the position of his limbs because he could see them. And then his vision began to blur.

"Sesshoumaru..?"

It was Maina's voice, he would know it anywhere, even now, with his superb hearing beginning to falter and fade along with his sight. Though he struggled to hear what else she said, her voice had become too faint to hear, and soon too faint even to distinguish it as hers.. Her scent, too, lessened with each passing moment. With all his might he latched on to the uncertain sight of his hand below him, but despite his efforts it faded into an indistinguishable blur of colors that soon all became black.

Within seconds, Sesshoumaru had become nothing more than a blind and deaf soul floating somewhere within a body he was unaware of, with nothing left to hang onto but a few last remnants of fragrance, the scent of a divinely protected forest that, though impossibly faint, still was somehow able to reach him…

* * *

Disregarding the insect that flew around her head, Maina rushed to his side, dropping to her knees to inspect the wound. Had what she witnessed truly happened? He was losing blood almost as quickly as he had when Naraku's tentacle went through him, and the offending saimyoushou had buried itself so deeply within his flesh that she could no longer see any trace of it.. 

"Sesshoumaru..?" she asked quietly. "Are you…"

Her breath caught in her throat as his face suddenly snapped up with a menacing growl, his eyes red and the youkai markings on his cheeks jagged. Shifting his weight fully onto his knees, Sesshoumaru lashed out at her with his claws, but Maina fell backwards with shock at his attack, so he did nothing but tear her sleeve and graze the skin.

"What's Naraku done to you..?"

Maina scrambled to her feet, with Sesshoumaru following suit, though less gracefully than usual. As he lunged at her, his claws slicing the air, she threw up a quick barrier to shield herself. He only attacked her all the more fiercely, unbothered by the sparks and flashes that scorched his skin with every clash of his youki and the divine power concentrated in her barrier. The mere force with which the enraged taiyoukai struck her shield threatened to send her tumbling off balance; all she could do to keep her feet on the ground was to back away from him in between blows.

"Sesshoumaru, what the hell are you doing!" Inuyasha yelled, rushing to the scene with his famed sword drawn. His half-brother paid him no attention, but the brash hanyou was not one to be ignored. Grasping Seshoumaru's armless shoulder with his free hand, Inuyasha shoved him away from the goddess and inserted himself between them, brandishing the transformed Tetsusaiga.

"If you wanna turn against us," he challenged, "you'll fight _me_ first."

Apparently having no qualms about such a fight, Sesshoumaru charged at the hanyou with a furious and uncharacteristic abandon, throwing himself within range of the Tetsusaiga just to get a few badly aimed strikes in. Maina watched the battle with worried eyes - though he had not yet been struck, the old wound that the saimyoushou had torn open was bleeding ever the more with all his moving about. The backs of his torn haori and hakama, soaked, clung to his body, and the grass below him was stained dark, the saturated clothing unable to soak up the blood trickling down his legs any longer.

"Inuyasha, don't hurt him!" Maina cried out.

The warning was unnecessary. Bewildered by the utter lack of style on the part of the proficient assassin, Inuyasha could do nothing more than block the relatively weak attacks with the flat of his sword, much as Maina had done with her barrier shield.

Inuyasha's human companions stood together, unable to keep their wide eyes from the sight of the mighty taiyoukai's barbaric, animalistic assault.

"Why is he doing this..?" Sango asked, more to herself than those around her.

"He's fighting savagely, mindlessly, much like Inuyasha does when his youkai blood takes over," Miroku observed, "Perhaps the saimyoushou is purposely targeting some organ that controls his youki.."

Suddenly, Inuyasha knocked Sesshoumaru back with the blunt edge of his sword. As he awkwardly stumbled backwards, shaking his head and trying to regain his balance, Kagome had a flash of insight. While Miroku and Sango kept their eyes on the battle, Kagome turned hers upon the two saimyoushou that now hovered above the half-brothers.

"I think I understand now!" she told her friends. "This is some kind of experiment of Naraku's.."

"Experiment?" Miroku asked.

"Yes. These saimyoushou are different from the others - it seems to me he's testing out a new breed on us. And those two up there were sent to observe, as well as to keep us from messing up his plans.."

Inuyasha came at Sesshoumaru again, hoping to bring him down while he was still disoriented from the last blow. He didn't care what had happened to cause the situation - he didn't want to hear Miroku's theories or ponder Naraku's motives. All he knew was that Sesshoumaru posed a threat to all of them and that he had to stop his attacks, one way or another, before he got any closer to Kagome and the other humans.

Sesshoumaru stared dumbly at him, blinking as if trying to focus, as Inuyasha ran toward him, holding the blunt side of his sword at the ready. Did he even realize he was about to be attacked?

The hanyou swung the great fang at his bleeding and uncoordinated youkai brother, striking his collar bone with as much force as he could without breaking it, but Sesshoumaru fought on, heedless of the blow, and struck out with his claws.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried from the sidelines. With the girl's yelp, Sesshoumaru turned his blood-red orbs upon the trio of humans. Not seeming to notice that Inuyasha, recovered from the brief shock of his wound, was brandishing his sword for another round, he turned to the side and sped toward Kagome.

All the world converged to save the young miko, Maina and Inuyasha hurrying to the spot to stop Sesshoumaru and Miroku, Kirara, and Sango, battle-ready, rushing in front to defend her. Claws clashed first with the Hiraikotsu; Sango held her ground well with it, but Miroku was ready to attack with his shakujou if Sesshoumaru should overwhelm her.

Kagome kept low behind Miroku and Sango. Despite the danger of her position, it seemed her safest bet was to stay put. She had an opportunity to run for cover, but that would leave her alone and in the open - she would be an easy target if her friends couldn't hold Sesshoumaru back. Besides, at present she was defenseless; unless she could somehow hit exclusively the saimyoushou lodged within his body, her sacred arrows would kill him, and she had no other weapons. Once again, she had to depend on the protection of her friends to save her..

Maina stood nearby, unable to do much except wait for an opening - the maddened taiyoukai's attacks came too quickly and fiercely for her to place a barrier around the humans. She also kept an eye on Inuyasha - in the time it took to blink, the hanyou could take his half-brother's life, and she knew his reservations about doing so were lessening by the minute now that he seemed to be targeting Kagome. Of course, the clawed gashes Sesshoumaru had left across his chest had done nothing to help the situation either..

_'Wait.. The wounds aren't…'_

_CRACK!_

Sesshoumaru fell to the ground, blood trickling from his left temple. The great bone boomerang was lowered, slowly, cautiously..

"Got him..," Sango sighed in relief.

Maina knelt beside the fallen lord. The blow wasn't serious, at least not for a youkai, but his eyes were closed. His youkai markings troubled her more than the head wound, though - they still were jagged. If he was unconscious, shouldn't they have returned to normal?

"Is he out?" Inuyasha asked, slightly lowering his Tetsusaiga.

"I don't..," she began, mumbling. Suddenly, his eyelid twitched and began to open.. "Ah, he's awake!"

Too late.

The possessed demon launched himself off the ground with a greater control than before. Maina latched onto his arm and tried to hold him back with a barrier, but he flung her away like a rag-doll and raced toward Kagome, unhindered, speed alone clearing his path. The speechless girl could do nothing as the snarling creature's bloody claws bore down on her.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried out.

"Watch out!" Miroku yelled, leaping toward her. He and Sesshoumaru reached Kagome mere milliseconds from each other - the monk knocked Kagome down as the claws lashed out - and the wound that might have taken out her throat was instead inflicted upon her shoulder.

"You bastard!" Inuyasha howled, chasing after his half-brother, the Tetsusaiga's blade at the ready. Sesshoumaru grinned with transformed fangs, snarling mockingly at the hanyou as Sango and Miroku tended to his victim.

Maina's eyes grew wide. _'That's it..'_

"Get out of the way! All of you get behind me!" Inuyasha called out to his human companions.

"You're going to use the wind scar?" Miroku gasped, suddenly finding himself fearing for the life of the stoic youkai he'd kept company with these last few days.

"Inuyasha, no!" Maina cried, jumping to her feet and running into the intended line of fire.

"What the hell do you think you're doing! Move!" he growled.

"I won't let you do this, Inuyasha," she said firmly, grabbing hold of the Tetsusaiga's blade for emphasis. "It's what Naraku wants.."

"He nearly killed Kagome! What do you expect me to do, reason with him?"

"Inuyasha, listen to me!"

"There's no time!" Inuyasha yelled, focusing on something behind her. She turned her head only slightly, but in her peripheral view she could see him.

Sesshoumaru was coming for them both.

"MOVE!" Inuyasha swung his sword, knocking Maina off her feet and out of his way. He took the opening. The wind swirled all around them as the hanyou lifted the massive fang above his head.

"KAZE NO KIZU!"

Maina cried out, but her voice was drowned by the pure force of the attack. She could see Sesshoumaru for only a split second before the great golden light of power blinded her. Gathering her own power in her hands, she could only hope her timing was right. She groped in the brightness and found the familiar arm as the wave of destruction came at them - she forced all the energy she could muster into him, hoping…

The humans, huddled together with Kirara several feet behind Inuyasha, were stupefied by her sudden, desperate act; Inuyasha himself was in disbelief. In their eyes, she had simply leaped into the middle of the blast. Collectively forgetting Maina's immortality, and perhaps even worrying about Sesshoumaru's fate, they held their tongues and their breaths, waiting for the dust to clear.

Moments later, Inuyasha's troupe began to make out a blue glow in the center of the target area. As the view became clearer, they could hardly believe their own eyes. Sesshoumaru, outlined by a bold blue aura, stood straddling the fissure that the attack had forged in the earth, still bleeding from his old wounds but otherwise untouched. At his side, Maina was slumped on the ground, her clothes ripped and countless new wounds bleeding, her eyes sealed tight against the pain, still gripping his solitary arm, as if afraid to let go of it..

"No way..," Inuyasha mumbled.

"So that's her protective barrier," Miroku mused. "The attack didn't affect Sesshoumaru at all, but it wasn't thrown back at Inuyasha either."

"Amazing..," was all Kagome could say.

"Yes, but as long as that barrier is around him," Sango said pessimistically, "he is invincible.."

Maina opened her eyes and slowly turned them upon Sesshoumaru, hoping against hope that the barrier had gone up before the wind scar hit him - when she saw him, alive, protected, she could not even sigh out her relief, it was so powerful.. His eyes and youkai markings were unchanged, but he was alive, and, for the moment, docile. Moments ago he had fought without thinking at all, it seemed, but now, just standing there unmoving, he looked confused..

* * *

He didn't know how long it had been since all went black - seconds, hours, weeks.. He only knew that no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to win back his body or his senses from whatever it was that had confiscated them from him. He knew now, _something_ had stolen his physical self away. With only his instincts and spiritual senses left to him, he had eventually sensed this something - a dark presence, deeply evil, and yet, at the same time, simple and primitive..

His only connection to the outside world was the maddeningly weak sense of smell he had managed to hang onto. He couldn't feel any movements, but the smells changed just enough that he knew his detached body must be in motion.

But then, he _felt _movement.

It felt to him like a massive earthquake - at any rate, there was some force outside strong enough to disturb even a numb, formless spirit. Or had it come from the being possessing him?

When the shaking stopped, that theory lost its possibility; the being's presence was suddenly less apparent, as if it had been injured or thrown into shock.

And for a moment, for one fleeting moment, he could feel the hard ground beneath his feet..

It was gone all too soon, and he could feel the dark being gain control again, but something besides his brief sense of body was also lost. He had earlier smelled Maina, then Inuyasha for a while, then the humans with his limited remaining sense, but now the air was strangely blank, empty.. It was as if the world outside had slipped from his grasp and disappeared.

Or been destroyed.

He floated in darkness for the longest time without sensing anything of the outside in the slightest; he actually found himself wishing to smell Inuyasha or the humans nearby - anyone or anything that he could grab onto before he lost touch completely with the outside, if he hadn't already..

* * *

The others could only stare, wondering if perhaps Sesshoumaru's stillness meant he had snapped out of it, and if Maina was okay - having witnessed her miraculous show of power, they now kept her divinity and immortality nearer to the forefronts of their minds, but she _was_ injured and had not yet moved, so she might have been knocked unconscious.

Suddenly, Sesshoumaru blinked, the corners of his mouth raised ever slightly, and both questions were answered at once.

All in the blink of an eye, Sesshoumaru shifted his muscles and lifted a foot to charge again at the Inuyasha gang, the movement shocking Maina out of her trance. Letting go of his arm for just a millisecond, the worn goddess called up a new barrier, an impermeable dome as tall as Sesshoumaru, and trapped the youkai underneath. Infuriated, he clawed ferociously at the barrier, but Maina kept both hands on it, feeding as much energy as she could spare into maintaining it.

"You'll stay in there, Sesshoumaru," she whispered. "For your own good, you'll stay there.."

"Are you all right?" Inuyasha asked her, cautiously approaching.

"I'd be better if you'd listened to me instead of trying to solve things with your sword," she snarled.

"Well now we'll all listen," Miroku joined in, Sango following closely with Kirara carrying a wounded and hastily bandaged Kagome on her back.

"The saimyoushou is controlling him somehow - I suppose you all have figured that out by now," Maina began, gazing pensively through her barrier at the raging taiyoukai, "but Naraku didn't do this to make Sesshoumaru into a puppet assassin. That's only a cover. The saimyoushou began by attacking us at random, but when it became apparent that the strategy was ineffective, he chose a target that would elicit an extreme response. He tried to attack Kagome so that Inuyasha would retaliate."

"No way," Inuyasha fumed. "He was aiming for her throat when he attacked. He meant to kill her!"

"The saimyoushou only pretended to aim for her throat. He wanted to convince you that he would kill her. I'm sure he would have pulled aside at the last second and given Kagome just a simple flesh wound anyway if none of you had interfered."

"No offence, Maina, but that's only speculation," Sango interjected.

"I'm sure of this, Sango. After the first few blows of his bout with Inuyasha, he seemed to be more coordinated than before. And after you knocked him down, his movements were even more precise, and the saimyoushou was able to tap into his speed. All along the insect has been gaining better and better control over Sesshoumaru's body - by the time he made his move for Kagome, he seemed to have achieved _complete_ control. If it wanted to, the saimyoushou could have used any of Sesshoumaru's fighting techniques by then, and yet he continued to use only brute force." Maina looked then to Inuyasha. "If he had truly meant to kill Kagome, he would have used his poison, which would have killed her no matter where the wound was made. In fact, he could have easily taken her out from a distance with the energy whip. He didn't use these deadly weapons on you or any of the rest of us either, even when you threatened to use your wind scar on him."

"It's not as if he just stood there. He charged at me when I was about to strike!" Inuyasha retorted.

"Sesshoumaru would have already gathered the poison in his claws or readied his energy whip if he had meant to use either to stop your attack - the saimyoushou did not prepare a deadly attack, but instead a ruse, a charge meant to spur you into action and keep me from stopping you. Sesshoumaru was never meant to kill you, Kagome, or anyone else!"

"Then what the hell's the point of all this? To scare us? To let us know Naraku's not out of commission just yet?" the hanyou yelled impatiently.

"Don't you see, you baka!" Maina yelled back. "You're the one that Naraku's been using all along! He made Sesshoumaru attack so that you would be forced to kill him!"

_SCREECH!_

Everyone jumped at the sound of claws against the barrier wall. Sesshoumaru was trying like mad to escape now, throwing up lightning-bright sparks as his claws clashed with it. To her surprise, Maina saw clawed ridges dug into the inside of the barrier. She brought her concentration fully to the barrier, pouring more of her power into it to fill in the weaknesses and strengthen the entire barrier's integrity, but Sesshoumaru only etched more cuts in it.

"Is something wrong?" Sango asked tentatively. Maina glanced at her for a moment with wide eyes. She hadn't realized her worries were showing. She turned back and began to release more power into the barrier, but it didn't seem to be getting any stronger.

"This isn't right," she muttered. "He shouldn't be able to damage the barrier.. And I can't seem to repair it…"

"You mean he's actually breaking through it?" Miroku chimed in.

"I don't understand how he's doing this!" Maina cried, now trying frantically to forge another layer on the outside. "All of you, get away from here!"

As Inuyasha and his friends hurried to a safe distance, they were nearly blinded by a bright beam of light coming from behind them. Daring to turn around, they saw as the light dissipated that Maina's barrier had been split open…

* * *

AN: Haha.. I guess I didn't mention before that the huge battle sequence spills into the next chapter, did I? To tell you the truth, I planned to dedicate this chapter to the battle so I'd have no battle scenes to write for the next one, but I didn't know just how long this thing would end up.. It's nearly as long as Taiyoukai Sunrise, the longest chapter to date, and the battle isn't even over yet! Holy fish sticks, Batman!

_(nevermind..)_

Of course, in reading over and editing it, the darn thing seems a lot shorter than it should be..

It all works out, though.. The stuff I had planned for next chapter will probably end up being fairly short, so it won't hurt to sneak in the end of a battle with it.. Besides, I think doing it this way will allow me to make the 17-18 chapter break just where I want it without 17 being too short for it. Yay!

Anywho, except for the conclusion to this in the next chapter, no more battles for a good while, thank goodness! Next one will be dramatic, but definitely not boring.. Some of the story's most vital scenes are approaching! Woohoo!

_(bows down and thanks my muse for the strength to write the battle chapter.. and for gracing me with a kinder plot to follow in the next one..)_


	17. For the Rest of Eternity

AN: Gomen! I know I left you all hanging for waaaaaaaay too long, and picked a really bad point in the story to go on a several-month hiatus. If I'd only gotten this chapter out before starting at my job, I'd have left at a decent spot. And unfortunately, that's what I'm doing anyway. I'm starting classes at UT next week, so there won't be another chapter for another long while, I'm sure.. (big surprise, another hiatus) But I got a break between my last day at work and the start of school, so I knew I just had to finally wrap up this chapter, which had been sitting half-written on my computer all this time. I feel so bad leaving my handful of loyal readers without the conclusion to the battle for over 6 months.. Oh man.. I'll understand if none of you bother to comment after all that (but please do anyway!).

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it, if you even bother to check my story for updates any more. Normally I'd spend a couple more days editing it, but I can always change things later, ne? So if you find a few bits of awkward wording here and there, that's why.

_(hands out ramen and cookies as a peace offering to my dear patient readers...)_

Without further rambling, I give you at long last the next chapter of Barriers!

_fyi, the divider bar button isn't working for some reason. i'll fix it later. _

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Chapter 17 - For the Rest of Eternity...

Maina, knocked back from the force of the barrier's cracking, watched in shock as it broke away around Sesshoumaru, disintegrating into a sparkling cloud.

'_How is this possible..!'_

"If Sesshoumaru can break through Lady Maina's barriers, how can we hope to put a stop to this without killing him?" Miroku pondered aloud.

"There has to be some way to get the saimyoushou out of his body..," Sango said.

Slowly, Sesshoumaru stepped out from the dust of the destroyed barrier and walked toward Maina - as he advanced, she could see his face clearly. It wasn't over yet..

With an eerie calmness, he stopped a mere foot in front of her, just staring at her with his red eyes.

"Sesshoumaru…"

He growled in response, bearing his fangs as he returned to his former ferocity, and shot his arm out at her. Before she could even gasp, his bloodied claws were wrapped around her throat.

"Maina!" Kagome cried from atop Kirara's back. Inuyasha drew his sword and readied himself to charge Sesshoumaru once again.

"Stay out of this!" Maina managed to shout. Sesshoumaru tightened his grip, just piercing her skin - she could feel the tiny rivulets of blood trailing down her neck. Inuyasha looked on with worry, but backed off nevertheless.

"I won't let you die like this, Sesshoumaru..," she whispered with a grunt.

With one swift movement, Maina kicked Sesshoumaru's legs out from under him and tackled him as he hit the ground, pinning down his legs and arm with her own and his chest with her other hand. He thrashed about as much as he could, shaking his head from side to side, snarling, and trying to kick the goddess off, but she only held on more tightly. When Sesshoumaru managed to kick one leg free, Maina caught it again, wrapping her own leg around it to keep it from moving, and she soon bound his other leg the same way.

"You're not escaping me this time!" she told him with a firm grunt. "Do you hear me, Sesshoumaru? I won't let go until you come back to your senses!"

He sat still for just a moment, growling and foaming in his rage but seeming to comply, then suddenly bucked and threw the unprepared Maina off. Though his legs were still tangled with hers, his hand was free. Rolling onto his side, he struck out at the goddess half-sprawled on the ground beside him, meaning to get to her while she was still in shock from her short fall.

But she was ready for him.

She watched the claws coming for her as if in slow motion. It was a stupid idea, rash, idiotic even, but what else could she possibly do? She watched - yes, he meant only to give her a flesh wound like Kagome's, just enough to divert her attention so that he could escape. She pushed away her instincts, the natural fear of pain that she had despite her immortality. It wouldn't hurt for long. It would heal quickly. She couldn't hesitate when the moment came. She _had_ to do this..

As the claws pierced her skin, she shoved herself up and off the ground, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes against the screams of her instincts and the pain of her torn flesh as she held her focus firmly on her plan. She reached out to Sesshoumaru; she grabbed hold of the bloodied cloth of his haori and pulled herself to him. She wrapped her arms around him, one to hold his torso, one to pin his upper arm. Only now, having done what had to be done, could she let the pain affect her..

She screamed, shattering the silent air even with her face buried in the crook of Sesshoumaru's neck..

The saimyoushou gazed, confused, through the taiyoukai's eyes at the clawed hand sticking out of the goddess's back, dripping divine blood onto the grass below. The small wound he had meant to inflict had become one that would have been fatal for anyone but her.

The humans and Inuyasha simply stood staring with eyes more disbelieving than before, unable to utter a word. Sesshoumaru's hand had gone right through her chest - no, she had _impaled_ herself on it. She was immortal of course, so such an otherwise suicidal act was not so unbelievable, but they had to wonder: were she a mortal, would she would have done it anyway..?

"You have to snap out of this, Sesshoumaru..," Maina whispered at last, raising her head ever slightly to speak into his ear, trying her best to keep the pain from entering her voice. "You have to fight the saimyoushou, drive it out.." He growled and struggled, but she only held onto him more firmly. "Please, Sesshoumaru, fight it. If you can't force the insect out of your body, Inuyasha will kill you.."

The saimyoushou thrashed his host's head about as if trying to avoid her words, but he couldn't budge from her grip now. He had to make her loosen it..

Sesshoumaru reared back his head, bringing it forward again with as much speed as he could build up in that short distance, and sank his fangs into Maina's shoulder. Maina cried out, but would not allow herself to lose focus. She maintained her grip in spite of the pain in her shoulder and chest.

"You can't let Naraku win, Sesshoumaru," Maina continued, her voice more ragged than before. "You have to take your body back.." He only bit down harder in reply. Maina grunted, squeezing her eyes shut. She could feel a dewy tear escaping down her cheek, but she was determined not to let herself be weakened. She couldn't give up on him..

"Are you listening to me?" she asked firmly, though quietly. "I refuse to spend the rest of eternity mourning your death, Sesshoumaru. Now _fight_!"

Had their position been different, she would have seen Sesshoumaru's red eyes begin to lighten..

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

Something was different now; he could feel his possessor's primal rage. Suddenly he caught just a faint whiff of Maina's scent. He thought that perhaps the creature's control over him was lessoning with its anger. He latched desperately onto that scent, knowing that if he lost it now, he might not have another chance to gain his senses back. And to his amazement, it did grow stronger, but was somehow changing..

The scent grew steadily stronger and easier to focus on for a short while, but he still was unable to tell what was different about it until a sudden surge of it flooded his nostrils. The forest's scent was mixed with that of metal. There could be no mistaking it: this was the smell of Maina's blood. Something had hurt her, and he could do nothing but float in blackness, trying to follow the scent.

But then, a scream broke through the blackness. Muffled and choked, but it reached him. It, too, was hers; as he fought to follow her blood's scent, it became louder to him. When the sound stopped, he only fought harder to grasp the scent - and swore he could hear, ever softly, her divine voice speaking to him..

"_Fight the saimyoushou, drive it out.. Please.."_

He struggled to hear the rest as her voice grew more faint, but instead he was hit with another wave of her blood's scent. He felt he must have been drowning in it - it seemed to him stronger now than any scent his nose had ever picked up at its full capacity. But why would he smell this so strongly unless..

Unless he himself had wounded her?

Sesshoumaru grasped the scent firmly, though it pained him to imagine Maina spilling this much blood, and for the second time in less than a week. He had to fight this creature as she said, or it would only hurt her even more. He strained to hear her voice again, hoping he could follow it out of his abyss..

"_You can't let Naraku win, Sesshoumaru.." _Yes, it was louder now, clearer. _"You have to take your body back.." _

'_I will, Maina..,' _he thought, though he could not hear his voice say it. He tried to sense his mouth, but the smell of her blood translated into an equally powerful taste. Nevertheless, it was another sense returning to him..

For a moment, he could smell something different, despite the intensity of the blood. The trace of a salt tear. There was only one reason he should have detected it - his sense of smell was back in full.

"_Are you listening to me?" _ Her voice was louder and firmer now, though he could tell it was no more than a harsh whisper. His hearing was nearly up to its usual sensitivity..

"_I refuse to spend the rest of eternity mourning your death, Sesshoumaru. Now _fight_!"_

'_Maina..' _He still couldn't gain control of his speech, but he suddenly began to see again - a great red blur that was fast becoming clearer. He could see a green patch of ground, but the rest remained red as the objects before him took shape. Blood-stained clothing, and his own clawed hand, red and dripping..

He felt a foreign sticky wetness in his mouth. It hadn't been an illusion of his nose. He truly was _tasting_ her blood..

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

The grip of Sesshoumaru's jaw on her shoulder suddenly lessened as the rest of his body went rigid. After a brief pause, he slowly let go of her shoulder completely. She felt him draw in a quick breath.

"Maina..?" She gasped at the soft whisper of her name and drew her head back to see his face, careful though not to move her wounded chest and put herself in more pain. He had a bewildered look to his eyes, but the important thing was that they were golden again instead of that horrible red. She loosened one arm's grip and reached up to gently trace his now smooth cheek markings with her fingers.

"Sesshoumaru," she whispered, a smile growing ever wider on her face. "You're back.."

Suddenly his body spasmed, violently jerking his arm out of her chest. She gritted her teeth for a moment, but forced herself to ignore the pain just once more as she reclaimed her hold on Sesshoumaru, fearful that he might be relapsing back into the saimyoushou's control. Squeezing his eyes tightly shut, he leaned his head on Maina's unharmed shoulder. As his head moved out of her field of view, she could see a twitching leg sticking out of the open wound on his back; another soon followed suit, and a third, and finally the insect's terrible mandibles tore out a wider path for the bulk of its body to crawl through.

Inuyasha hurried toward the pair, brandishing his Tetsusaiga, and stood behind his half-brother, waiting for his moment. When the saimyoushou had pulled itself completely out, it immediately tried to escape to the air, but its wings, heavy with the taiyoukai's blood, were slow. Inuyasha cut it in two with one easy swing of his sword. The two hovering sentinels left their comrade to his death, dashing away as quickly as they had come. Inuyasha placed his sword back in its sheath and squatted at Maina's side.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine, but Sesshoumaru.."

"I know. We'll get his wounds treated," he said with a slight smirk.

"Thank you, Inuyasha..," Maina said quietly, her voice rough. She looked down at Sesshoumaru, his eyes still closed, but relaxed now. "He's fallen unconscious. We need to get him to Kaede before he loses any more blood."

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

He opened his eyes upon the thatched roof of Kaede's hut. Again. He was lying in the same bed, with a new bandage wrapped around him. He sighed in irritation.

"You're awake at last," said a soft voice beside him. Sesshoumaru turned his head to see Maina sitting on the floor next to his bedding, the edge of a bandage peeking out at the neckline of her white kimono. He suddenly remembered those nightmarish moments after the saimyoushou had lost its control over his senses. He remembered pulling his fangs out of her mangled shoulder - the wound that bandage now hid. And, more terrible, he remembered the sight of his bloody claws sticking out of her back.. But she gently smiled at him, as if she had already forgotten it all.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. He imagined for a moment where her other bandage must be, the one wrapped around her body, covering her puncture wound. A wound and a bandage to match his own.

"Fine," he automatically answered. She only smiled wider, though her eyes betrayed something quite different.

"You're not a very good liar, Sesshoumaru." He smirked in response, just slightly. Even false joviality usually worked well to ease her anxieties - he could give her a moment of that, at least. She needn't be worrying about him, after all.

"What about you? Are you.. in pain?" he asked a few silent moments later.

"I'm fine, too," she answered, doing her best to keep smiling, even if only a little. Her wounds did still pain her, but in a day or two every trace of them would be gone. There was no reason to make him worry about her when he was in such a bad condition himself.

He hadn't noticed until now, but there were wide scabs all over her lower arms, from various degrees of scratches and cuts, and several smaller ones around her throat. He raised his hand and gently traced one of the larger ones near her left wrist.

"Did I cause these injuries as well?"

"Don't say that," she said firmly, grasping his hand. "You didn't hurt me, Sesshoumaru. Naraku is the only one to blame for what happened today." Her eyes shifted toward the floor. "Besides, you received the worst injuries yourself."

"That doesn't matter," he growled, taking his hand from hers and awkwardly pushing himself up into a sitting position. "I should have been able to fight off that damned insect's control from the start.."

"That's for sure," Inuyasha muttered from across the room. Kagome and the others stared daggers at him, but Sesshoumaru and Maina ignored his comment.

"You shouldn't try to move just yet," Maina told him softly, taking hold of his arm.

"He's making a fool of me, sending saimyoushou instead of facing me himself. He didn't even bother sending one of his puppets, or even a horde of lower demons.."

"Please just lie back down, Sesshoumaru. Give your wounds a chance to heal…" He shot her a deadly glare.

"I've been humiliated enough. This Sesshoumaru is not staying in bed any longer," he growled, struggling to push himself onto his feet.

"Sesshoumaru!" she cried, trying to hold him back. Kagome and Kaede rushed over and tried to coax him back into bed as well, but he managed to find his footing nevertheless.

"Listen to Maina, won't you? She's only trying to help you," Kagome said.

"Lay ye down, Sesshoumaru. Do not be so hasty to leave, or ye shall worsen thy injuries!" the old miko warned.

He merely snarled, pushing his way between the human women and shaking off Maina's hold. He made his way out of the hut, pressing his hand against his midsection as he tried to ignore the pain that shot through the area with each step. Maina sighed, looking to Kaede and Kagome.

"Just stay here. I'll go after him myself." She slipped on a pair of sandals and left the hut. The humans glanced around at each other, all of them wearing the same concerned look. Inuyasha just rolled his eyes.

"He's just being a stubborn ass like always. I don't know why you're all worried about it."

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

"Sesshoumaru!" The white figure, illuminated in the pitch of midnight, paused for a moment before turning to face her. She too seemed to glow in her white clothes, though in the darkness her hair appeared a deep black.

"I will not return to the hut," he stated plainly.

"It took five days for your wounds to heal the first time - what makes you think half a day's sleep is sufficient now?" she demanded, her tender brow harshly creased by irritation.

"I did not say I was healed. I said I would not return there." He turned his back on her and resumed his pained walk. Maina caught up with him and half-jogged alongside, no longer trying to physically hold him back.

"Listen to reason, will you? You're in no condition to run off like this!" Sesshoumaru stopped quickly, turning an angry face upon the goddess.

"Reason?" he roared. "I have lain in that hut for nearly a week - an invalid in the care of humans! My very presence in this village goes against all reason!"

"I know nothing of these lands, Sesshoumaru, but the humans offered to treat you here - where else could I have taken you? Or did you expect me to just let you die?" Maina cried.

"The Tensaiga would have kept me from death. You saw its power for yourself," he huffed, turning away again.

"Is that your grand plan? To die and let the sword resurrect you time and time again just to avoid accepting help from others?" He only gave her an angry grunt in response. She narrowed her eyes at him, though he wouldn't look at her anyhow. "I should think the Tensaiga would grow tired of wasting its power so," she muttered. He remained silent. She sighed. "If only you'd stop trying to do everything on your own and accept Inuyasha and his friends' help.."

"I won't ally with the likes of them!" he growled.

"And why not?" she pled. "You have a common enemy - an enemy who will surely destroy this land and its people if he is not stopped in time!"

"Inuyasha is my enemy!" he shouted. "Naraku is nothing more than a pest - I won't befriend one hanyou mongrel for the sake of defeating another!"

"Sesshoumaru," she began softly, "I know your reasons for resenting Inuyasha, but can't you finally put all that aside? For a long time, I was just as upset as you were Inutaishou, and I blamed his human mistress and child for much of the tragedy as well - but you can't hold them completely responsible, especially not Inuyasha." She gently laid a hand on his shoulder, hoping to calm him, but he refused to look at her any longer. She frowned silently. "He has no idea about the circumstances of his birth. Inutaishou died when he was still just an infant, and his mother, if she knew anything, obviously never told him. He knows nothing of the wars with the panthers, or at least not the reason behind them. He doesn't know of your mother's hardships or of Mai.. It's likely he doesn't know that you had a sister at all."

"What difference does it make?" he snapped. Maina gave a slight huff in frustration.

"You've hated him all his life, and the only reason for it, as far as he knows, is that he's not a full-blooded youkai like you. Inuyasha is a good person, Sesshoumaru, but years of unrelenting hatred isn't an easy thing to get over. He's not going to go out of his way to ally with you. You're the one who has to break the ice and end this pointless feud," she pleaded.

"I don't need allies," he stated firmly. "I don't need Inuyasha and those humans slowing me down and getting in my way," he continued, turning to her with a harsh look, "and I don't need you helping and worrying about me."

"I'm not worried about you; what I'm worried about is defeating Naraku. An alliance between you and Inuyasha would make that possible," she replied, matching his glare.

"That isn't what I meant," he said quietly. "I heard what you said earlier." She blinked, breaking her serious look.

"I don't understand.."

"I'm not sure what happened after the saimyoushou possessed me, but before it left my body I had mostly gained back my senses. I heard what you were saying to me." He looked to the side, away from her face. "You said you'd mourn for the rest of eternity if I were to die." Had there been any light in the sky, a tinge of red would have been seen in Maina's cheeks, but Sesshoumaru did not notice this as he looked toward her face again. "You have no business worrying about me so. You are my ally, and nothing more. You know that," he said coldly. "And you know that we cannot _be_ anything more."

"Yes, of course I know that. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be concerned about you..," she stammered.

"You're being more than simply _concerned,_ Maina, and you're getting in my way."

"Sesshoumaru.."

"You are a hindrance to me. You've been coddling me like a child. You've made me so weak that I couldn't even fight off a lowly insect without your interference."

As he briefly paused, she could do nothing but stand rigid, unable to speak for fear that her welling eyes would drop a tear. Though it was too dark for one to be seen, she knew his keen nose would sense it the instant it fell. She couldn't allow him to know how his icy words hurt her. The single moment of silence felt all the longer for it, but perhaps it wasn't long enough until Sesshoumaru gathered his voice and dealt her heart his final blow without even a blink.

"I have no need for you, Maina. Go back to your forest."

She stood still a moment, wondering if what she had heard was real or some bad dream, but it didn't take long for her conflicted feelings to turn to anger.

"You're nothing but a stubborn, ungrateful dog!" she shouted. The _smack!_ of her palm reverberated throughout the little village. Sesshoumaru didn't retaliate, or even respond at all; he stood still, his head facing the side as her blow had left it, not even lifting his hand to touch the offended cheek.

Her stinging hand began to tremble, and there was no longer any use trying to stop the tears from coming, but her own obstinacy wouldn't let her give the callous youkai the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She stormed off into the woods, ignoring the village footpath altogether, without any goodbyes.

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

In the dark of his castle, an inhuman creature grinned with human teeth as he gazed into an adorned silver mirror, his dry, arrogant laugh filling each crevice of the dank hideaway.

"She is now headed in the direction of the protected forest, Master Naraku" whispered the pale girl dispassionately.

"Yes..," the creature murmured. He looked past the girl and to the back of the room, where two oversized bees hovered within a large cage, buzzing with malice at their imprisonment. "It seems, Kanna, that I needn't get rid of Sesshoumaru after all…"

**..o0o0o0o0o..**

AN: Ah, a bit of closure at last - the battle is done, and now the story is at its 'intermission,' you might say. Not exactly a midway point, but a definite turning point in the plotline. Next chapter begins the second major section of the story (which is why I wish I'd gotten to this point before the hiatus). The plot will be moving along much faster, and each chapter will be a lot more eventful than those in the first section.

Sorry again for the wait, but thanks to all who read, though I know I've prolly lost a lot of you by now. For you, I give my promise that I will eventually finish the story. No matter how effing long it takes me, now matter how many more hiati I have to take, I won't let it die out!

Remember, patience is a great virtue, despite how annoying it is to observe it.

...silva aeterna...


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